London: London police have released a man they arrested earlier this week for allegedly pushing a woman into the path of an oncoming bus.
The 41-year-old man, whom police did not name, was released after he gave an adequate alibi as to where he was at the time of the offence, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said Saturday. Investigators are still looking for the perpetrator.
The man, who was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm, has been released “with no further action,” the agency said in a statement. BBC reported that the man’s lawyer said he was in the United States at the time of the incident, which happened in May.
A video shows a man, who was jogging on a sidewalk on the bustling Putney Bridge, shove the woman toward the road and continue running. The woman’s upper body dangled in front of the bus, forcing the driver to swerve to narrowly miss her.
London police had released the closed-circuit video of the incident to try to get leads to the identify of the suspect. The incident occurred three months ago, at about 7:40am on May 5, but investigators have been unable to find the jogger, a police spokesman said this week.
“The victim was put in extreme danger when she was knocked into the road,” Sgt. Mat Knowles said. “It was only due to the superb quick reactions of the bus driver that she was not hit by the vehicle.”
The beginning of the video showed another man walking several feet ahead of the woman. The jogger passed by him and then appeared to reach toward the woman as she was walking.
Police said the bus stopped after the woman fell, and passengers rushed to help her. About 15 minutes later, the jogger came back. The woman tried to speak with him, but he ignored her and kept running, police said.
The woman, who was not identified, suffered minor injuries from the incident, police said.
On Thursday, police said they “received a good response from the appeal” but were still looking for additional witnesses. Anyone with information was asked to call the Putney Safer Neighborhood Team at 020-8785-8874.
The 700-foot Putney Bridge runs across the River Thames and connects two areas in southwest London, Putney and Fulham.
