At least three people have been injured after a vehicle rammed into pedestrians close to a mosque in northwest London, British police have said.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the suspected "hate crime" took place shortly after 12:20am local time on Wednesday, when three males and a woman, all aged in their mid-twenties, were asked to leave a private car park in Cricklewood belonging to the Hussaini Association.

After engaging in a confrontation with a group of worshippers at the Shia Islamic centre, "comments of an Islamophobic nature were allegedly made," then the car "proceeded to make off at speed colliding with three individuals as it left."

"The car and its occupants failed to stop and injured three people," the police statement added.

Police said they had launched an investigation but the incident was not being treated as terror-related but as a possible hate crime.

"We are treating this incident very seriously and a number of enquiries are under way to trace the car and those involved," Kelly Schonhage, an officer from a local branch of the CID said.

The incident left a man in his 50s hospitalised with a "serious leg injury," while two other men in their 20s suffered minor injuries, the police said. (Aljazeera)