A police officer has been stabbed and the alleged assailant shot outside the UK Houses of Parliament, shortly after a car mowed down dozens of bystanders on Westminster Bridge.
Three other people have also died, with at least 40 injured, after the attacker drove a car into them on busy bridge in central London.
Police said they are investigating the attack as “a terrorist incident” and placed the area on lockdown for several hours. This has recently been lifted. Parliament was also suspended, but Prime Minister Theresa May has announced it will sit tomorrow.
Multiple reports suggest the suspect was driving erratically on Westminster Bridge, killing at least three and hitting dozens of pedestrians before mounting the crowded footpath.
Junior doctor Colleen Anderson from St Thomas’ Hospital has described the injuries as “catastrophic,” according to the Press Association.
“There were people [injured] across the bridge. There were some with minor injuries, some catastrophic,” Anderson said.
“Some had injuries they could walk away from or who have life-changing injuries. There were maybe a dozen (injured).”
That number has since been increased to at least 20.
The alleged assailant then reportedly exited the vehicle in front of the gates of Parliament and began to attack police officers with a seven-to-eight inch knife.
“We heard a loud bang, lots of shouting and men running around,” a witnesses told The Sun.
“Someone rushed through, attacked a policeman.
“He appeared to be carrying a knife or a gun. We then heard gunfire, five or six rounds.
“The man approached one of the police officers with a knife.”
Foreign minister Tobias Ellwood, who is a former solder, was pictured as he attempted to resuscitate the police officer fatally attacked outside parliament.
A source told the Telegraph: “[Ellwood] tried to give mouth-to-mouth and stem blood flow from multiple stab wounds to the officer until the chopper and medics arrived.”
Prime Minister Theresa May was reportedly on the parliamentary estate when the incident occurred. However, a source at Downing Street has confirmed the 60-year-old politician is safe.
The attack comes on the one-year anniversary of the 2016 Brussels Bombing, which claimed the lives of 32 people.
