Metro

Five injured as Mercedes smashes into van outside Radio City Music Hall

Imran Ahmed

Imran Ahmed (G.N. Miller)

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An allegedly boozed-up Mercedes-Benz driver flying through Midtown at 110 mph slammed into a van loaded with passengers headed for JFK Airport early yesterday, police sources said.

At least five people were rushed to Bellevue Hospital after the horrific crash outside Radio City Music Hall at 4:45 a.m., officials said.

The van’s injured driver was pinned under mangled wreckage, and about 15 bystanders lifted chunks of metal off him to free him, witnesses said.

“It was the loudest explosion. All I saw was the big van, and I just heard it screeching,’’ one witness said.

Cops last night were trying to figure out whether the Mercedes driver — identified as Imran Ahmed, 27, of Jersey City — may have been drag-racing against another vehicle when he blew the red light and crashed.

He was arrested and charged with drunken driving, vehicular assault and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Ahmed allegedly told cops he had been drinking, and he allegedly blew a .114 blood-alcohol reading, nearly one and a half times the legal limit, sources said.

Ahmed was in tears and apologetic when he spoke later to investigators, cops said.

As he was being transferred in handcuffs from the Midtown North precinct station house to Central Booking last night, Ahmed repeatedly told The Post, “I’m sorry to the families. My condolences to the families.”

The Mercedes was heading west on 50th Street and the van north on Sixth Avenue when they crashed. The van passengers were headed for flights out of JFK.

They included a couple from Israel — David Sayag, 57, who suffered cuts to his neck and arms, and his wife, Bracha, 46, who had a fractured skull and ribs — and city visitors Joanne Gordon, 57, who suffered cut arms, and Julie Robson, 60, who had back pain.

Van driver Vanik Chiloyan, 56, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, suffered broken ribs and a busted shoulder, relatives said.

“I want to kill the guy,” his son, Arthur, said, referring to Ahmed.

The son, who also works for the shuttle, said that he had been set to work the early Sunday shift, but that his dad took the job so he could study for school.

Additional reporting by Christine Parker