One had earlier hit a double-decker tour bus, smashing the windscreen, and a grey private taxi, damaging its windows. Big Bus Tours said that none of its staff were injured.
Bashir Aden, 48, a construction worker, told the London Telegraph: “I saw a soldier falling down into the street after the horse ran into a car. One of my colleagues called the police.
One of the horses collides with a taxi in London.Credit: PA via AP
“The man hit the floor hard, he was screaming in pain. You could see blood all over the parked car.
“The horses come down this route every day, but today the horse looked stressed or panicked. I saw the horse run away after it hit a bus. People were screaming and running all over.”
A spokesperson for the London Ambulance Service said it was called at 8.25am to reports of a person being thrown from a horse in Buckingham Palace Road, and the first paramedic was on the scene within five minutes.
Pictures and videos of two of the animals, one white and the other black, circulated widely across social media. The two horses were later caught in Limehouse, around six kilometres east of central London, City of London police said.
One soldier was injured when he was thrown to the ground. Credit: PA via AP
A black horse was seen close to the incident in Victoria, and a silver Mercedes-Benz people carrier had suffered severe damage to its side panel with two of its rear windows smashed.
Jordan Pettitt, a staff photographer at PA Media, witnessed the moment the horses came “hurtling” down the street in Aldwych, with the white horse’s front covered in “saturated rich red”.
He told Sky News the atmosphere was “eerie” as, despite it being rush hour, the street had fallen “completely silent”.
The horses of the Household Cavalry often have a prominent role in royal ceremonies in the UK and are trained for several months and ridden on the streets of London to get used to heavy traffic and loud noises, including gun salutes and military bands.
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Woodward said the unit exercises around 150 horses on the roads and in parks every morning, partly to help desensitise them to city noise. The animals were receiving care from vets at Hyde Park barracks.
With agencies