Police are hunting a motorist who was caught on video apparently assaulting a cyclist in a road rage incident.
The incident, which has gone viral on YouTube, shows the male driver of a high-powered Audi A7 pushing the man off his bicycle in central London during the morning rush-hour.
A video of the incident has been watched more than half a million times since it was uploaded onto YouTube on last Thurday, when the incident took place.
A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed detectives they want to speak with the motorist, who is seen lunging out at the male cyclist causing him to fall off his bike onto the road surface.
The cyclist has lodged an allegation of assault, he added.
The incident was recorded by a video camera mounted on the helmet of another cyclist.
“Police in Islington are investigating an allegation of assault on a cyclist which took place in Clerkenwell Road junction with Farringdon Road, EC1 on Thursday January 23 at around 9am,” said the Metropolitan Police spokesman.
“An altercation took place between a cyclist and a male occupant of a white vehicle.
“The cyclist was apparently assaulted causing him to fall off his bike. The cyclist rode off from the scene.
“At this stage no arrests have been made. Enquiries are continuing.”
The incident appeared to be triggered when the car pulled into a cycle-only box at traffic lights on busy Farringdon Road, which connects the City with Islington to the north.
The cyclist, wearing a black woolly hat and a dark overcoat, moves backwards to remonstrate with the driver for pulling too far forward and is heard to shout: “Cycle area.”
But the white car pulls away at speed when the lights change.
The video then shows the cyclist pedalling quickly to catch up with the car, and at the next traffic lights he pulls up alongside the Audi, leans closely to the driver’s window and swears loudly at the motorist.
The helmet camera, then facing the wrong way, does not show the driver emerging from the vehicle. But as the camera turns back towards the ongoing confrontation, the driver, who appears to be in his 30s or 40s and is dressed in a smart white shirt and chinos, swings at the cyclist with his right hand.
The cyclist falls over and the driver holds his right fist in a striking position, but the cyclist gets back on his bike and rides away.
The Audi’s number plate is clearly shown in the video but the police spokesman told The Telegraph that officers were looking into whether the number plate was genuine.
The 26-year-old cyclist who recorded the incident, whose name is Jude, said: "I pulled up and when waiting for the lights to change, the Audi pulled into the box relatively aggressively.
"It wasn't shown clearly in the video how close he was to the cyclist and how intimidating this would have been.
"In reality cyclists do not like being near cars, and so when this was pointed out by the cyclist - in my opinion as a safety measure as opposed to antagonising - it was shocking to see the disregard shown to the safety of the the cyclist."
He added: "I do not agree with the response of the cyclist in shouting through the window of the car, but in reality this looked like a case of red mist that everybody will have experienced at some point.
"When the passenger of the car got out and punched the cyclist I was shocked, as that level of violence was disproportionate to say the least."
Jude, a sports journalist, declined to give his full name because he has received threats on YouTube after posting the video. At the time of the incident he was reviewing the helmet camera for a sports technology magazine.
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