A POLICE officer was injured while another dived out of the way as a “reckless” driver mounted the kerb on the seafront.

The rogue driver failed to pull over for a stop check that police were carrying out in the borough over the weekend.

The silver Audi had been asked to stop by a police officer along Marine Parade at 3.15pm on Sunday.

But the officer was then struck by the vehicle and suffered what has been described as a ‘minor hand injury’.

After hitting the officer, the Audi then crossed the road before mounting the kerb near the Adventure Island mini golf course.

This forced members of the public to take evasive action and jumping out of the way after the car drove along the pavement.

Cheryl Nevin, Labour councillor for Milton Ward, slammed the driver and sent sympathies to the officer who was injured.

She said: “My concern is for the person who has been injured and other members of the public that had to deal with the reckless behaviour of the driver. The hospitals, we have heard, have been trying to recover from a really stressful period.

“I work in the health service so I am part of that. We do not need any more extreme casualties coming in right now.

“We need to be dealing with people’s surgeries and not by those who are caused by reckless driving.”

Police carried out spot checks in Southend to ensure that people were not travelling from other areas to visit the seafront in line with the Covid-19 guidance.

The vehicle was later found abandoned nearby and seized.

No arrests have been made in connection to the incident and the police investigation is ongoing.

Ms Nevin added: “It makes you wonder whether there was something that person was trying to get away from.”

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We’d like to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time and saw the collision or anyone with dash cam footage is asked to contact us quoting incident 780 of February 21.”

Anyone with information can submit a report online at www.essex.police.uk or use the ‘Live Chat’ button to speak to an online operator between 7am-11pm.

Alternatively, you can call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.