British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Belgian Counterpart Charles Michel’s motorcade was involved in a car collision Friday morning as the two leaders were travelling between Great War centenary memorial events.
The two European leaders had been attending an event commemorating the end of the Great War near Bergen, Belgium and were on their way to the NATO headquarters for further planned events when a number of vehicles in their convoy were involved in a collision.
The event was not intentional and there was no “malicious intent”, reports Belgian newspaper De Standaard, which states a government spokesman said it amounted to “a regrettable accident.”
Britain Prime minister Theresa May (L) and French president Emmanuel Macron pose upon their arrival in Albert, northern France on November 9, 2018 during a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. / LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images
A vehicle is reported to have come in contact with the convoy which caused two police motorcycle riders to collide and fall off their bikes. The Belgian Prime Minister immediately stopped the convoy to inquire after the wellbeing of the injured officers, who were taken to a hospital with light injuries.
Britain’s BBC reports the crash occurred when a vehicle tried to drive after being passed by a convoy, not realising there was another one immediately behind it.
Shortly before the collision, the two leaders had laid wreaths at the graves of two British soldiers who died during the Great War — John Parr and George Ellison, the first and last British soldiers known to have been killed during the conflict respectively. Mrs May will spend the afternoon with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The events come in the build-up to major commemorations planned for Sunday, which will mark 100 years having passed since the cessation of hostilities on November 11th, 1918.
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook