Two people are dead, a policeman has been stabbed and his attacker shot by officers after a major terrorist incident near London’s Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
Several others are being treated for “catastrophic” injuries, junior doctor Colleen Anderson of St Thomas’ Hospital said.
“There were people across the bridge. There were some with minor injuries, some catastrophic. Some had injuries they could walk away from or who have life- changing injuries,” Anderson said.
The attacker mowed down several pedestrians as he drove a grey Hyundai i40 across Westminster Bridge before crashing it into railings then running through the gates of the Palace of Westminster and stabbing the officer.
Eyewitnesses said he was shot by police as he approached a second officer clutching his knife.
He left a trail of destruction as paramedics tended to his victims on the bridge and at the gate.
Two people were seen to be lying within Old Palace Yard,
immediately outside Westminster Hall and were believed to be the attacker and the stabbed police officer.
The sitting in the House of Commons was suspended while police officers sealed off the area around the incident.
Lord Brian Paddick said there was a “suspect package” outside Parliament which police have had to deal with before the building can be evacuated.
“There was a suspect package attached to a vehicle outside Parliament,” the retired police officer told the BBC.
“Armed officers searched the whole of the Parliament estate to make sure there were no suspects outstanding.”
Immediately before the incident, a crowd of passers-by was seen running from the direction of Westminster Bridge and around the corner into Parliament Square.
Witness Rick Longley told the Press Association that he saw a man stab the policeman outside Britain’s Parliament.
“We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out,” he said.
“They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.
“A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman.”
Daily Mail political editor Jason Groves said he witnessed the scene from his office window and described the moment the assailant was shot.
“A guy comes through the vehicle entrance wielding something, towards a copper, the copper tumbles,” he said.
“The man’s running towards Westminster Hall, and then you’ve got a plain clothes copper comes running out.
“Not from the gate, but from the inside, shoots him once from maybe 10 or 15 yards away with a handgun, and then gets closer to him and shoots him again from over him and he doesn’t get up.”
Prime Minister Theresa May was seen being ushered into a silver Jaguar in the grounds of the palace as what sounded like gunfire rang out at around 2.45pm, while members of parliament were ordered into a lobby by gun-wielding counter- terrorism police officers.
-NewstalkZB
