Chaos in UK as man pulls knife on driver at London gas station
A petrol tanker delivers fuel to a gas station that was closed due to having no fuel, in Liverpool, England, Sept. 23, 2021. (Peter Byrne / PA via AP)


An infuriated man pulled a knife on a driver trying to cut in line at a gas station in the British capital London, Sky News said in a report Tuesday.

According to Sky News, a passerby named Stefan Silva filmed the incident while it was taking place.

"He tried to cut across the traffic lights from the other side of the road. So he was obviously illegally driving on the wrong side of the road to cut across. So he quickly pushed in," Silva told Sky News.

"A man – who had been a passenger in another car – walked up to the vehicle and appeared to pull out a knife, before being thrown on the bonnet of the car as it lurched forward," the British broadcaster also said in the piece.

"He was banging on the side of the car and when he went to the front of the car the old man in the car tried to run him over. So he mounted the bonnet. After that he was still banging on the blue car but it wasn't going anywhere because of the traffic," Silva was also quoted as saying.

Sky News also quoted police officers.

"Police were called at 14:37 hrs on Monday, 27 September to reports of a disturbance involving two motorists outside a petrol garage in Bellegrove Road, Welling. Officers attended and found no trace of either vehicle. No injuries were reported and no suspects were identified," police told Sky.

"We are aware of footage online which appears to show the incident and will review this as part of our ongoing enquiries."

The British government put dozens of soldiers on standby earlier this week to help ease fuel supply problems after an acute shortage of truckers triggered panic buying that left fuel pumps dry across the country and raised fears that hospitals would be left without doctors and nurses.

As unions called for emergency workers to be given priority for fuel supplies, the government said it was placing British army tanker drivers in "a state of readiness in order to be deployed if required to deliver fuel to where it is needed most."

Lines of drivers snaked back from those gas stations that were still serving in major cities, though dozens of pumps were closed with signs saying that their gasoline and diesel had run dry, Reuters reporters said.

A post-Brexit shortage of truck drivers, exacerbated by a debilitating halt to truck-driving-license testing during COVID-19 lockdowns, has sown chaos through British supply chains, raising the specter of shortages and price rises in the run-up to Christmas.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said a limited number of military tanker drivers had been put in a state of readiness to be deployed to deliver fuel if necessary.