So much has happened on the streets of Britain this year. As 2017 draws to a close, RT has gathered together some of the year’s most shocking and definitive moments caught on CCTV.
Stabbings
2017 was a year of widespread knife crime in Britain. According to official statistics, knife crime was up by 20 percent to 34,703 incidents in the past year – the highest in seven years. Knife crime in London accounted for 40 percent of that.
This video from January is representative of the spate of vicious knife attacks hitting the country in 2017. It shows the moment a man was stabbed 12 times in the middle of a Manchester street.
The attack took place at 12:15am on January 16 outside the popular Printworks venue. It saw a 25-year-old man suffering stab wounds to his abdomen and chest.
Following the altercation, the attacker, who was described as having dark hair and wearing a dark jacket, got into a taxi and threatened its driver with a knife before being dropped off.
Terrorism (GRAPHIC)
This year has been one of the most intense periods for terrorism in Britain’s recent history as the country was hit by six attacks.
The first attack to rock the country was that on Westminster in March, which claimed the lives of five people, including a police officer. That was followed by the attack on Manchester Arena in May, which killed 22.
The video below captures the moment police officers gunned down the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on London Bridge and London Borough Market that killed seven people and injured a further 48 in June.
The CCTV footage shows the three terrorists walking down Stoney Street in Borough Market before they quickly backtrack to attack a passerby.
A police car arrives moments later and three officers with submachine guns lunge out. Another vehicle is seen arriving and officers rushing to help neutralize the assailants.
As the attackers seem to refuse to surrender, the officers open fire.
Police say they responded and killed the attackers within eight minutes after receiving the first reports of the incident.
Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a stabbing rampage in Borough Market while shouting: “This is for Allah.”
The attack preceded that in Finsbury Park in June outside a mosque, which left one dead.
Another assault in Parsons Green saw an improvised explosive device (IED) set off on board a packed District Line train.
Fortunately there were no fatalities as the bomb failed to detonate properly.
‘Putney Pusher’
One shocking viral video of 2017 was this footage of a jogger pushing a fellow pedestrian into the path of a London bus.
Below is the horrifying moment a woman cheats death after a jogger appears to shove her into the path of one of London’s iconic red double-decker buses. As the perpetrator is yet to be found, it has sparked claims it is emblematic of the falling numbers of police patrols which leave criminals to think “the streets are theirs.”
The incident, which happened on Putney Bridge at around 7.40am on May 5, shows the male jogger barging into the 33-year-old woman and sending her flying off the sidewalk. The bus is seen swerving at the last moment to avoid the woman, missing her by just a few inches.
The man then had the cheek to run past the victim again on the other side of the bridge 15 minutes later. When the woman sought his attention, however, he failed to acknowledge her, the Metropolitan Police reports.
Three men who had been arrested over the incident have all been released without charge.
Peter Kirkham, a former detective chief inspector, told the Independent “overworked” and “overstretched” detectives may be the underlying reason for the struggle to hunt down the ‘Putney Pusher.’
Flying man
This dramatic footage captures the moment a man was sent flying 45ft through the air after being hit by a double-decker bus in Reading. And lived.
The bus is seen accelerating and moving at high-speed before it smashes into Simon Smith, a truck driver who miraculously came out of the accident unhurt.
In an even more baffling scene, Smith is seen getting up and casually making his way to the Purple Turtle bar on Gun Street.
At the time of the crash, Smith said: “I heard some banging behind me and I was hit from behind. Then you can see what happened from the CCTV.
“The video says it all. I didn’t tense because I didn’t know it was coming. After it I just wanted to get somewhere safe. I feel very lucky to be alive,” Smith told the Sun newspaper.
The driver, Cheikh Senghor, 40, of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, last week at Reading Magistrates Court admitted to dangerous driving and to accidentally pressing the accelerator rather than the brakes.
Hit and run
The number of hit and run incidents is at its highest in more than a decade as they accounted for 12 percent (17,122) of the 140,056 road traffic accidents causing casualties in 2015, according to Department for Transport figures. That is up from a rate of just over 10 percent, or 16,667, in 2014.
This sickening footage captures the moment a driver makes off after plowing into a man and catapulting him 60ft down the road in January.
Adam McDermott, 33, was jailed this November for six-and-a-half years after leaving 53-year-old Andrew Payne for dead on a street in Brighton.
The footage shows how the father-of-three was hurled in the air by McDermott, a builder with no driving license, before the driver sweeps away without stopping to assist his victim.
Payne, from Hove, East Sussex, survived with a head injury and a punctured lung. He spent six days in hospital.
Last month, Sussex Police Sgt Dan Pitcher said it is a miracle Payne is alive and did not suffer any more serious long-term impairments.
“McDermott’s actions that day were awful, he drove without regard for anyone’s life and when he hit Mr Payne, he didn’t even stop. He would have known how hard he hit him and he didn’t even brake. For all he knew, Mr Payne was dead,” Pitcher said.
“Thankfully this investigation has not been into Mr Payne’s death; this only comes down to luck.”