LONDON — Five military horses spooked by noise from a building site bolted during routine exercises on Wednesday near Buckingham Palace, threw off four riders and caused chaos as they galloped loose through central London streets and collided with vehicles during the busy morning rush hour.
The commotion erupted when the horses from the Household Cavalry, which were conducting an extended exercise for an upcoming military parade, presumably became alarmed by the sound of concrete falling off a moving walkway at a construction site in Belgravia, a swanky neighborhood just to the west of the palace.
Five of the seven horses ran off and four soldiers were thrown off. Three of them were hospitalized with injuries. None of them were deemed to be life-threatening.
The horses — minus their riders — then ran through main roads in central London, hitting vehicles and stunning commuters as they headed to work. The horses were all captured shortly after and are back at the barracks in Hyde Park undergoing medical tests.
Witnesses saw one of the loose animals crashing into a taxi waiting outside the Clermont Hotel nearby, shattering windows. Another of the animals crashed into a tour bus, smashing the windshield.
Pictures and videos shared widely across social media show two of the horses — one white, one black — running at speed down Aldwych, in between London's historic financial center and the busy West End theater district.
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