Terror attack near British parliament
Three people were killed in a "terrorist" attack in the heart of London yesterday when a man mowed down pedestrians on a bridge, then stabbed a police officer outside parliament before being shot dead.
At around 2:40pm (1440 GMT), media reported gunfire outside parliament and that several people had been injured in an incident on nearby Westminster Bridge, a busy traffic route that is also a popular tourist spot with its views of parliament and the Big Ben, AFP reported.
Britain's top anti-terror police officer Mark Rowley said a car had rammed into several people on the bridge, including three police officers.
The car then crashed into railings outside parliament and a knife-wielding attacker tried to enter the building, stabbing a police officer.
Rowley said four people had died, two on the bridge as well as the police officer and the assailant.
A woman was pulled alive, but with serious injuries, from the Thames, the Port of London Authority said. The circumstances of her fall into the river were unknown. Three French schoolchildren aged 15 or 16 were among those injured in the attack, added Reuters quoting French officials.
"We have declared this as a terrorist incident and the counter-terrorism command are carrying out a full-scale investigation into the attacks," he said.
Parliament was swiftly put on lockdown, with lawmakers and staff ordered to remain inside. Hundreds of people were later evacuated from the building.
Police cordoned off a large area in Westminster and tourists on the London Eye, a popular tourist attraction, were stuck 135 metres in the air during the incident.
Prime Minister Theresa May, who was in parliament at the time, was ushered away by car and was preparing to chair a meeting of the government's COBRA emergencies committee.
A police spokesman said extra officers would be patrolling the city and urged the public to be vigilant.
Rowley said a "massive operation" was now under way but declined to go into further details.
Television pictures showed a red air ambulance landing on the grass square opposite the parliament building and other emergency vehicles swarming nearby roads.
Westminster Bridge and the nearby Westminster Underground station were closed off.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said in a video statement: "The government's top priority is the security of its people and I urge everyone to remain calm."
Very little was known about the attacker. Witness reports described a middle-aged man of South Asian appearance who was carrying a large knife.
A picture published in British media showed a bearded man wearing a dark top, said to be the assailant, on a stretcher being treated by medics.
"We currently believe there was only one attacker," Rowley said.
Prime Minister May spoke to US President Donald Trump about the attack, the White House said.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned what he described as "horrific acts of violence".
Polish former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who witnessed the attack from a taxi as he crossed the bridge, said he saw five victims and made a video of the scene.
"I heard something that sounded like a small car crash. Then I looked out of the window and saw that there was one person lying on the asphalt," he told Reuters.
"I did not see the face of the person lying on the asphalt, but the person was not moving, it was not showing any signs of life. One of the men I saw, his head was bleeding very badly. But the person I filmed - no, that person was not showing any signs of life."
London's transport system was hit by four co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks in July 2005 that left 52 people dead, carried out by British attackers inspired by Al-Qaeda terror network. There was an attempted second wave of attacks two weeks later.
The latest incident comes with Europe on high alert after a series of deadly jihadist attacks, including the Brussels bombings exactly a year ago on March 22, 2016.
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