- By Daniele Palumbo and Paul Pigott
- BBC Verify and BBC News
Police have verified CCTV which shows a police van following two people on an electric bike minutes before a fatal crash caused chaos in Cardiff.
The footage shows the South Wales Police van and the bike 900m, or more than half a mile, from the crash site.
But police said none of their vehicles were on Snowden Road in Ely – where the crash happened – at the time it happened.
The video analyzed by BBC Verify is time-stamped at 17:59 BST on Monday at Frank Road.
“We received footage showing a police car following a bicycle just before 6pm,” Ch Supt Martyn Stone said in a statement outside Cardiff Bay police station.
He declined to answer questions after the statement.
The footage “will help us piece together the circumstances leading up to the collision,” he added.
“You have to check the carefully worded statement from the chief superintendent,” he said.
“We can confirm that the following investigations have been carried out so far, and that when the collision occurred there was no police vehicle on Snowden Road,” Ch Supt Stone said.
“At this stage we do not believe there are any other vehicles involved.”
The force has made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), he confirmed.
An IOPC spokesman said: “We will be sending investigators to a police incident post procedure to begin gathering information and to determine whether the IOPC will conduct an independent investigation”.
Cars were set on fire, fireworks were set off and concrete slabs were thrown at police as more than 100 people gathered after the crash.
“Fifteen police officers were injured, 11 were taken to hospital, and four were treated at the scene,” Ch Supt Stone said.
Several arrests have already been made, he said, “and there are more to come”.
“Residents have our assurance that we will do our best to catch those responsible,” he added.
‘Understandably scared’
Police were called to the crash shortly after 18:00 BST on Monday.
At around 20:00, police tweeted that they were still at the scene of the crash but were also working to “de-escalate the ongoing unrest”.
The force said it had received a number of calls from “understandably frightened” residents.
The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was called back to the scene at 22:30 and took five people to hospital.
Resident Vikki Takata said she saw “lots of riot vans” from her window, and a helicopter “shining a torch at us”.
“It was murder,” he recalled. “I’ve never seen anything like it except on television.”
Some eyewitnesses said youths chased police officers down the street and threw stones and missiles at cars.
“The police with shields we were all literally in front of my car,” Ms Takata recalled. “It’s very scary.”
The force said its thoughts are with the families of the two boys who died as well as those affected by the unrest.
Bridy Bool, who knew the Evans family, said Harvey had “lots of friends” and loved motorcycles and football.
“He is a good friend of Kyrees and [they] are in the same things. It is not unusual for them to be together,” he said.
Ms Bool said she believed the pair were being chased by officers “because there were videos going around”.
Social Justice Minister Jane Hutt told the Senedd on Tuesday afternoon that more arrests were expected.
First Minister Mark Drakeford – whose Cardiff West constituency includes Ely – said he was “deeply concerned” by the “outrageous reports”.
Prime Minister’s spokesman Rishi Sunak said what happened was “appalling and completely unacceptable”.
Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for a full investigation. Welsh Conservative Senedd group leader Andrew RT Davies called it “deeply worrying”.
Cardiff council leader Huw Thomas appealed for calm, and said the local authority was “helping to clean up, so we can rebuild and present a more positive image of Ely”.
Are you in the area? Did you witness the riot? You can share your experiences by email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you would like to speak to a BBC reporter. You can also be contacted in the following ways:
If you’re reading this page and can’t see the form you’ll need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location in any submission.