Video of a high-speed police chase across is going viral, after a police boat was captured chasing four jet ski riders across London’s River Thames on Friday.
A Metropolitan Police boat was seen at around 6:30 p.m. local time Friday racing after the jet skis. Sightings were reported from Greenwich, all the way to Canary Wharf.
“You often do see police boats coming up and down here patrolling, but you don’t often see them engaged in a chase,” Leigh Jackson, 34, told the London Press Association, who watched part of the chase from his balcony in Surrey Quays.
“Then 15 minutes later they came back the opposite way, again being chased,” he said.
The Metropolitan police confirmed to the Press Association Saturday that the Metropolitan police were responding to reports of the jetskiers riding at breakneck speeds down the River Thames, headed directly for central London, reports The Independent.
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A spokeswoman said in a statement to the Independent that, “The jet skis were approaching central London and the Marine Policing Unit were able to make them change their course. Following this the decision was taken to no longer pursue the jet skis for safety reasons.”
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Jet skis and other varieties of “personal watercraft” are not allowed upstream of the Thames Barrier, which is east of where the riders were being pursued by police.
Along the rest of the River Thames, water vehicles are not allowed to exceed eight knots, or 14.8 km/h, if they are within 200 metres of a “jetty” or docking pier for boats, a beach or residential property.
While there are restrictions on where they can be ridden, a licence is not required to ride a jet ski in the U.K.
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