A man has been arrested nearly nine years after a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge in a case that remained one of London’s most notorious unsolved investigations.
The Metropolitan Police said a 44-year-old man was arrested on 15 June 2026 on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm in connection with the incident, which took place on the morning of 5 May 2017.
The case became widely known as the “Putney Pusher” investigation after CCTV footage showed a jogger apparently pushing a 33-year-old woman into the road as a double-decker bus approached on Putney Bridge in south-west London.
According to investigators, the incident occurred at approximately 7:40am. The woman was forced into the path of the bus but escaped serious injury after the driver, Oliver Salbris, swerved sharply to avoid hitting her.
The victim later attempted to confront the jogger when he returned across the bridge around 15 minutes later, but he reportedly ignored her and continued on his route.
The Metropolitan Police launched a major investigation following the release of CCTV footage. Officers issued public appeals, examined numerous leads and questioned around 50 potential suspects. Two arrests were made during the investigation, but no charges followed and the case was formally closed in June 2018.
The incident continued to attract public attention in the years that followed. In 2024, a stage production titled Once Upon a Bridge was performed at the OSO Arts Centre in Barnes, revisiting the case and generating renewed discussion about the identity of the suspect.
Police have not publicly named the man arrested this week. However, reports state that the suspect is a banker, former British Army officer and director at a private bank, with connections to several European royal families.
The Metropolitan Police said: “The arrest relates to an incident on 5 May 2017, where a woman was pushed into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge in Putney.”
Bus driver Oliver Salbris was widely praised for preventing what could have been a fatal collision. Speaking after the incident in 2017, he told the Sunday Times he believed the woman would have been struck had he not reacted immediately.
“If I hadn’t swerved, I would have smashed her head,” he said.
“It was reflex. The consequences would have been terrible for her – and for me.”
Salbris also said at the time that the jogger appeared to have pushed the woman deliberately.
The investigation remains ongoing.