Marbella crash Brits ‘who drove into pedestrians outside a nightclub’ appear battered and bruised in court – as cops FINALLY work out who was driving the £50K Audi Q7
Marcus Stewart, 27, was identified as the alleged driver after appearing before a judge yesterday
THE Brit pair arrested after an Audi ploughed into pedestrians and cars in Marbella have been put behind bars after appearing battered and bruised in court.
Marcus Stewart, 27, was identified as the alleged driver after appearing before a judge in a closed hearing alongside fellow suspect Liam O’Neill yesterday.
They were arrested on Sunday after the £50,000 Audi mowed down three pedestrians outside the Ocean Club in Puerto Banus before crashing into several cars in a high-speed police chase.
A court source confirmed both men were remanded in custody for further investigations prior to any formal charges over the car rampage that left eight injured.
O'Neill was told by a judge he could avoid being sent to Alhaurin prison near Malaga by paying £22,000 bail - but he failed to stump-up the cash.
Stewart was not offered bail after it was claimed that he was behind the wheel of the Audi that rammed into pedestrians and caused a multiple car pile-up.
A judge will now continue to investigate the pair over charges including attempted homicide, wounding and a traffic offence.
Stewart’s identification as the alleged driver opens up the possibility only he may end up facing trial on the full raft of charges.
Neither man has yet been formally charged as is customary in Spain where charges are only laid shortly before trial.
The pair spent seven hours under interrogation at Marbella court yesterday after arriving under the watch of police touting machine guns.
O'Neill was pictured being led into a police car after the hearing with his face covered in painful-looking purple bruises.
Two of the eight people injured remain in hospital, including a Spanish woman who gave birth less than two weeks ago whose baby survived the crash with minor injuries.
A 29-year-old Brit also suffered a broken leg after being run over near the Ocean Club.
Chilling footage shows screaming tourists jumping into bushes to escape as the speeding Audi mounted the pavement and crashed into vehicles on Sunday.
Local authorities claimed a fight outside the Ocean Club in Marbella sparked the incident.
Javier Martin, who heads up Marbella’s local police force, said: “The origin of this incident was a fight in a beach club.
“The people involved in the fight left and went to their car and returned to confront the people they’d apparently had the altercation with.
“They mounted the pavement and stopped in the pedestrian area in the car and argued again with those people and as they were leaving the three people were run over and the chase began with the undercover Civil Guard vehicle.
“It will be up to investigators to decide whether the incident was an accident or the victims were run over deliberately.”
Traumatised witnesses described how they feared "they would die", with footage showing horrified beach-goers screaming as they tried to escape.
Rachel Phillips said she was forced to run for her life after the car sped towards her and her friend Charlotte.
She told Sun Online: "We were leaving and the next thing we knew, we literally saw this huge black car careering towards us, making loads of noise and revving and going onto the pavement.
"We could hear it bashing into people, and people screaming.
"There was a split second where I was like - I don't even know if we're going to come out of this alive."
Video of the crash, filmed from a nearby apartment block above the scene, captures the sound of car tyres squealing as it races around the street.
A shuddering smash could be heard before someone screamed "somebody help me".
Dramatic footage has emerged of the moment a man - believed to Stewart - was arrested by a gun-toting cop.
Mum-of-four Helen Potts, 41, captured the moment he was frogmarched away by the officer after she apparently witnessed the suspect sprint onto the beach and hide behind a wall.
She told SunOnline: “We were sitting out on our balcony on Sunday when we heard loud bangs.
“One of my friends thought it was an explosion, but I thought it was gunfire because it was lots of bangs. It must have been the sound of the car hitting other cars at speed.
“Then we saw a man with a gun, we didn’t know it he was a policeman or a terrorist, it was so scary.
“I just kept thinking – please don’t let this be another Tunisia terrorist attack. It was so unsettling.
“But we then noticed the man with a gun had a hi-vis jacket on, so we were reassured it was police or security.”
It is claimed that heavily tattooed Stewart sprinted around 100 metres from the scene and tried to make his getaway on the beach outside Marbella Coral Beach hotel.
Mrs Potts said: “We saw the cop get the man (suspect) who was hiding behind a wall.
“He must have jumped out of his car after the crash, he then jumped over a wall onto the beach and crouched down. He must have legged it up the side.”
Dramatic footage shows a brave cop grappling with the bare-chested man before frogmarching him down the street.
The officer, a Civil Guard, can be heard shouting "Arriba" – Spanish for "Get Up" – as he appeared to struggle briefly with Stewart behind a tree.
Seconds later he emerged with the Brit in front of him, pushing him with his pistol close to his back as he forced him away from the beach.
New footage also shows the police officer guarding the suspect as he lay on the road after the arrest.
One Brit tourist said he had been told by witnesses that the driver sped around a roundabout five times with people desperately scrambling to get out of his way.
The man, who did not want to be named, said he arrived at the scene in the aftermath, seeing a number of people seriously injured.
He told The Sun Online: “People were screaming and going mad.
“There was a guy in the bush not even moving who had a huge bruise, he must have been smacked by the car from behind.”
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He said he saw a second man with a huge bandage on his head also being treated by ambulances at the scene.
He said in the 25 years he had regularly visited the area, he had “never seen anything like this.”
He said: “I ran a couple of girls home, they were hysterical.
“People had jumped into trees and bushes to get away from this guy, it was awful.”
Another witness, who had been at the Ocean Club all day, told The Sun: "I thought it was a terrorist attack at first.
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"We thought someone would get out and start shooting people."
The young Brit, who did not wish to be named, said the car arrived shortly after an altercation between two groups of young men.
He added: "It drove along the pavement towards us, slowly at first.
"Then some big muscly blokes jumped in and it sped up, going round in circles hitting people.
"The tyres were squealing – it was going on for about five minutes. I had to jump over a wall to stop him hitting me.
"People were jumping in bushes and getting under cars."
British man relives the horror of Marbella
A Brit has relived the moment he was forced to jump a fence to escape a car targeting pedestrians near a popular Spanish resort.
The man was on his stag do with friends when the horror unfolded, with the young man saying they were left in tears at their lucky escape.
He told The Sun Online: “We had just come out of the Ocean Club and a group of people were walking up the little strip to get to the round-a-bout where people get cabs.
“There was an altercation near us – no one was throwing punches but there was a bit of swearing and people pushing each other off.
“As we got a bit further up, we saw an Audi SQ7 start to drive really slowly and then it mounted the curb.
“We thought it was just showing off but then all of a sudden, we heard this screeching of tyres.”
The young Brit, who did not want to be named, said everyone immediately panicked, with crowds running from the car that began to circle the round-a-bout, appearing to target specific people.
He said: “I had to jump over a fence and my friend jumped on a car.
“I saw physically one person get hit – a black guy got hit hard while trying to get out of the way.
“It was swerving down the road and the guy went straight onto the bonnet and into the air.”
He said it wasn’t until an unmarked police car arrived that the Audi left the scene, where it eventually crashed as it tried to evade police.
He said: “I thought it was a terrorist attack, it’s happened so much lately.
“We were worried and thought he would get out and try to shoot people.
“People were trying to run away and hide, hiding under cars and in bushes.
He said his friends had been reduced to tears at the horror, with the group of friends still grappling to come to terms with the incident.
He said: “I was so shocked, it came out of nowhere.”
The traumatised witness, a 22-year-old Brit, added: "I was on the phone to my mum, dad and boyfriend because I thought I was going to die."
A well-informed police source allayed fears of terrorism, saying: “A man of British origin believed to have been driving under the influence of alcohol has been arrested.
“There is no evidence this was in any way terrorism-related.
“Three pedestrians were injured at the scene of the original incident.
"There were casualties at the car crash scene as well, including a young baby, but none are believed to be serious.”
It is understood one of the men had been living in Marbella.
The Ocean Club is a favourite of Brit celebs including Katie Price, footballer Aaron Lennon, Calum Best and the Towie cast including Mario Falcone, Mark Wright and Sam Faiers.
Cops closed off part of nearby Marbella’s Golden Mile where the hit-and-run driver crashed near a five-star hotel a couple of miles from the Ocean Club after fleeing the scene.
Marbella's mayor Jose Bernal has insisted that the area was safe, saying: "Marbella is a safe place and when isolated incidents like this occur, the emergency services and forces of law and order have shown they act immediately and efficiently.
"What happened yesterday was basically two drunks on drugs who had a fight in a club and got in a car and ended up running over three people in their madness who thankfully survived.
"It’s an exceptional occurrence in Marbella which should make us feel proud of the security we have here."
A spokesman for the Ocean Club, where most revellers are Brits, said they were not aware of the incident and it hadn’t happened inside the club.
The club was celebrating its annual Champagne party, at which revellers often end up spraying each other with expensive bottles of bubbly.
The event normally attracts celebs and top footballers.
The Interior Ministry says the driver also was seriously injured when the car eventually crashed.
The Civil Guard says officers tried to stop the car at a motorway check Sunday evening when it sped off into the town, where it rammed into a crowded pedestrian avenue.
The Interior Ministry says that three people were injured on the street and that the driver and four others were hurt in a multiple car accident caused by the fleeing car.
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