Notting Hill crash: Three dead after car hits block of flats and catches fire

Three people have died after a car crashed into a block of flats and caught fire in west London.

Police were called at 04:50 BST after the vehicle collided with a sheltered accommodation building on Great Western Road in Notting Hill.

The London Fire Brigade put out the blaze but three people were pronounced dead at the scene. Nine people were led to safety from the flats.

Work to identify the victims and inform their families is ongoing.

One witness who lives on the road told LBC they saw a neighbour run out to try to help the people in the car.

They said: "It's a shock - you don't expect something like that to happen. There's no words. It'll stay with us for a while."

A nearby coffee shop owner said some of the first witnesses on the scene were visibly shaken.

Goao Santos, who runs the BICA coffee shop in Westbourne Park station, said: "The guy cleaning the street, the cleaner, he came to get an espresso. They said it's a really bad car crash.

"They went there, they said the car was on fire, they tried to rescue but they could not rescue."

Mr Santos added that someone in the man's group then called the police.

"He was a bit shaken, you know," he said.