Mother and son Cecilia Lusevic, 56, and Mateo Bilis-Lusevic, 12, said they heard a loud bang when the police boat crashed into Westminster Bridge and then watched as the officers were rescued from the River Thames.
The visitors from Chile were on a river tour boat on the north side of the central London bridge when they saw the incident. They were evacuated from their vessel shortly after.
Mateo said: “Two boats were riding extremely fast through the water.
“Suddenly, I heard a boom. I was looking towards the boat, and I heard a boom.
“Then three people went flying into the water and one of the people was really hurt.”
He said the officers were in the water for about 10 minutes and a life ring was thrown for one of them.
A black rigid inflatable boat arrived to help them out of the water – the same boat that witnesses said they saw paramedics treating the casualties aboard.
Mateo said emergency services then also arrived.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said it sent ambulance crews, incident response officers, and paramedic teams as well as London’s Air Ambulance to the incident.
London Fire Brigade said it deployed a fire boat and three fire rescue units with water rescue capabilities to the scene.
