The Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop, has laughed off an incident in which the window of a taxi he was travelling in was shattered by what was initially believed to be a gunshot. Hislop, 64, offered a lighthearted response to the incident on Friday’s edition of Have I Got News For You on the BBC. “I always say at this point I’m glad to be here, but this week I really mean it,” he quipped to the audience. With a wry smile he recalled a “high point” of the incident. “A policeman investigating me said: ‘This may be a silly question, but is there anyone who might have a grudge against you?’” Paul Merton, a regular team captain, immediately replied: “I have an alibi.” Police were called on Tuesday after a black-cab driver who had come to a standstill in traffic in Soho, central London, heard what he believed to be a bullet shattering his window. After carrying out “urgent” inquiries, examining CCTV footage and undertaking a forensic investigation, the Metropolitan police confirmed a mechanical failure as the more likely explanation. Detectives found no evidence of a firearms discharge. Though able to laugh it off with customary wit a few days on, it is understood that Hislop was shaken by the incident, which took place on Dean Street. He thanked everyone “for their concern” in a statement posted on social media. The editor also thanked the officers who dealt with the incident. Hislop, once labelled the “most sued man in English legal history” by the Independent, has been editor of Private Eye since 1986. He has been a panellist on the BBC quizshow since it began in 1990.