The driver of a car which crashed into three pedestrians on an east Belfast street has died, police said tonight. The 47-year-old is believed to have suffered a heart attack and lost control of the silver Audi which careered on to the footpath, hitting a woman on a mobility scooter.

She was talking to two other people at a bus stop at the time. All three were standing outside a charity shop on the Woodstock Road and were taken to hospital by ambulance.

The front window of the shop was smashed by the impact. A PSNI spokeswoman said: “A 47-year-old man has died following the road traffic collision on the Woodstock Road this morning. He was the driver of the car involved in the collision.”

Sections of the Woodstock and Cregagh Roads remain closed tonight as police continue their investigations. John McPoland, a spokesman for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, said: “When the crews arrived they found that the driver of the car had suffered some kind of cardiac episode and lost control of the car and veered on to the footpath.

“On the footpath there was a lady in a mobility scooter talking to two pedestrians. Unfortunately, the car ploughed into the three of them. “It put one of the pedestrians through the shop front but he was able to get himself out of that.”

Eyewitnesses, who described the crash as terrifying, said there were a number of children in the area at the time.