Philly police say an officer was hit by a car and broke his ankle while trying to break up a crowd on Broad Street

A Philadelphia police officer broke his ankle early Sunday morning when someone drove a car into him as officers were trying to disperse a large crowd on Broad Street, according to police.

The incident happened around 1:45 a.m. on the 1300 block of North Broad Street in North Philadelphia, authorities said. More than 500 people, some in cars, had gathered on the street, according to police, and when officers tried to break up the crowd, someone drove a car into the officer and then drove away.

The injured officer — whom authorities did not identify — was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Police did not say what type of car struck the officer or provide a description of a suspected driver or anyone else inside the vehicle.

The police officers’ union said another officer suffered a hand injury during the incident. The Police Department said “a couple” of other officers had sustained unspecified injuries and were treated and released Sunday.

The gathering on Broad Street came hours after officers had responded earlier in the night to several reports of large crowds across Northeast Philadelphia, police said. Each of those three gatherings was disbanded without issues, police said.

Similar gatherings — sometimes called car meetups — have made headlines across the city over the past several weeks for different reasons.

The previous weekend, reports circulated on social media that hundreds of ATV riders had caused riot-like conditions on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, although police later said there was nothing uncharacteristic about those gatherings, which they said were dispersed without arrests, citations, or injuries.

In June, however, a series of car meetups over several hours ended in violence, as a Pennsylvania state trooper fatally shot 18-year-old Anthony Allegrini on I-95 near Penn’s Landing. Authorities said Allegrini had driven toward two troopers who were on foot and trying to approach his car while responding to a chaotic scene of cars drifting and performing stunts on the highway.

John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, issued a statement Sunday criticizing city leaders, who he said had not sufficiently spoken up “to address this illegal behavior or lend support for our rank-and-file police officers.”

“Rank-and-file officers are working tirelessly to stay ahead of this crime epidemic without the support of elected leaders,” McNesby said.

Sunday evening, Mayor Jim Kenney wrote on Twitter: “I am always very grateful to our officers who put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect the public and keep the peace.” He called car meets “disruptive, reckless, and often dangerous.”

Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, meanwhile, tweeted, “This type of criminal behavior will not be tolerated,” saying detectives were reviewing video footage of the weekend’s incidents and that police “will make arrests where warranted.”