Screams as sedan smashes barriers
A MAN has been arrested and a number of people have been injured after a car collided with security barriers outside Britain’s Houses of Parliament in London.
The area was yesterday in lockdown after armed police swarmed the scene during the morning.
Images posted to social media showed the suspect, wearing a black puffer jacket, surrounded by officers, being led away in handcuffs from a silver-coloured Ford.
“The male driver of the car was detained by officers at the scene. A number of pedestrians have been injured. Officers remain at the scene. We will issue further info when we have it,” London’s police force said in a statement on Twitter.
Two people were treated at the scene for injuries that are not thought to be serious, London Ambulance Service said.
British counter-terror police will lead the investigation into the car crash, but Scotland Yard said it was still “keeping an open mind”.
“While we are keeping an open mind, the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the #Westminster incident,” the force said on Twitter.
Parliament Square and nearby streets were closed and cordoned off. Eyewitness Ewalina Ochab told the Press Association: “I think it looked intentional – the car drove at speed and towards the barriers.
“I was walking on the other side (of the road). I heard some noise and someone screamed. I turned around and I saw a silver car driving very fast close to the railings, maybe even on the pavement.
“The person driving did not go out” of the vehicle, she said. The car did not appear to have a front registration plate when it crashed, she added.
Bus driver Victor Ogbomo, 49, was driving passengers past the front of Westminster when he saw the crash.
“All I saw was the smoke coming out of a vehicle, a silver vehicle ... I just stopped the bus,” he said. “The police said we have to move back, then in less than five minutes the response team came.”
He said officers had their guns out when they arrested the driver.
In March 2017 Khalid Masood, 52, killed four people on nearby Westminster Bridge before he stabbed to death an unarmed police officer in the grounds of parliament. He was shot dead at the scene. It was the first of five attacks on Britain last year that police blamed on terrorism.