Three people have been injured after a car ploughed into a crowd outside a north London Islamic centre, in an incident that is being treated as a hate crime.

The collision took place at Al-Majlis Al-Hussaini centre at the junction of Oxgate Lane and Edgware Road in Brent, which had been hosting a religious event.

Simon Rose, the local police commander, said at 12.30am voluntary stewards and members of the security team challenged a group of people who were in a car park around the corner from the centre. The volunteers and stewards were allegedly subjected to Islamophobic and racist abuse and there was an altercation.

“The people who had been challenged then drove at members of the community in a car,” Rose said. “The car mounted the pavement twice and two people have been seriously hurt. Their injuries at this time are not believed to be life-threatening.”

He added: “It’s being dealt with as an Islamophobic hate crime. It is not at this time being dealt with as a terrorism incident, although that is as always subject to continuous review.”

There have been no arrests and police are hunting for the car and its occupants.

A witness said the vehicle mounted the pavement several times before ploughing into the crowd in what he believed was a deliberate attempt to hurt or kill people wearing Islamic dress.

Ali Mashkour, 33, who was helping with security at the event, said he saw one person flung 10ft into the air by the car and then dragged underneath it.

“I heard glass breaking and the revving of an engine and the screeching of tyres. It was driving quite fast, around 30mph,” said Mashkour, a former special constable with the Metropolitan police. “It was in the middle of the road, then turned to come on to the pavement … There was a crowd. It turned right, on to the pavement where I was standing.”

Mashkour said he was at first in shock and then noticed a child at his side. “I grabbed him and threw him across the pavement, to get him out the way, and then I jumped,” he said. “If I did not move him and then myself, the kid would have been hit.”

He said most if not all people in the immediate area were wearing Islamic clothing. “No one else was walking there apart from people from the Islamic community, dressed in black and women wearing scarves covering their head.”

Another witness, Ali Salman, 33, said: “We heard loud sounds, a car skidding around.” He pushed his friend out of the way as the car came “full force at us”. “If I didn’t react without thinking, we would have been dead.”

He said there were about 100 people standing by the road. “He was taking them out like dominos,” he said.

Salman was frustrated that media coverage of the attack did not describe it as terrorist incident. “Why are we scared to say terrorists when [the victims are] Muslims?” he asked. “One hundred per cent this is a terrorist attack.”

Mustafa Balaghi al-Balaghi, a spokesperson for Al-Hussaini centre, called for the community to remain calm and tolerant.

Muhammed Butt, the leader of Brent council, said: “We absolutely denounce any activities that divide the communities of Brent. What happened last night is a travesty, it’s a tragedy. We have made it absolutely crystal clear in Brent that we are a community that works together, is one community. We will not tolerate any forms of division in Brent. We want to make that clear we stand united as one.”

Members of the community centre appeared unperturbed by the incident on Wednesday. In the women’s section of Al-Hussaini centre, tea, coffee and snacks were being served to those attending the morning service.

A woman who did not wish to give her name said simply: “We are not afraid.”