Four die in London attack
LONDON: The British capital was in a state of shock yesterday after four people were killed in a terror attack outside the houses of parliament.
They included a police officer, who was stabbed, and his attacker, Scotland Yard’s top anti-terror officer Mark Rowley said.
Two others are understood to have died on Westminster Bridge when a car was deliberately driven into the victims. At least 20 people were injured.
Police believed there may only have been one suspect. The attacker, armed with two knives, mowed down pedestrians, then rushed at the gates in front of parliament, stabbing a policeman before he was shot by officers.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of terror when gunfire rang out as the attacker approached a second officer within yards of the houses of parliament. – The Independent
LONDON: Four people were killed and several injured in the capital’s Westminster district yesterday in what appeared to be linked events in which an attacker stabbed a police officer and another person ploughed a car into nearby pedestrians.
The stabbed police officer and the attacker were among the dead.
The person who attacked the officer was shot outside the British parliament building.
“We are aware of reports of an incident at Westminster,” the Metropolitan Police said.
“Officers – including firearms officers – are on scene and dealing with the incident.
“We are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise,” the police force said.
The leader of the Commons, the lower house of parliament, said he was suspending business after a “serious incident” in which a police officer was stabbed and reports of other violent incidents.
In an apparent indication that the two incidents could be linked, Sky News sports reporter Alan Parry said he saw the driver run away after the car collision, followed by the sound of gunfire.
Up to a dozen people were injured after the car veered into pedestrians on Westminister Bridge, reports said.
“I was just outside Westminster tube station when I heard an almighty crash and a vehicle that looked like a 4×4 had crashed into railings,” the broadcaster quoted Parry as saying.
“There was smoke coming from underneath the bonnet. I saw a pedestrian or a cyclist who had clearly been hit. The driver sprinted away from the scene. That was followed by four, what sounded very much like, gunshots,” Parry said. “Then all of a sudden all hell was let loose and police descended everywhere. The whole area was locked down.”
London ambulance service deputy director of operations Pauline Cranmer said her service had sent “a number of resources to the scene including ambulance crews, London’s air ambulance and our hazardous area response team”.
Sky News reported that the attacker at parliament, apparently armed with a knife, forced his way through security gates and assaulted a police officer.
The BBC and other media said police shot and seriously injured the attacker.
David Lammy, the Labour Party MP for Tottenham in London, said on Twitter that he was locked in the Commons chamber at parliament during the incidents, “but my heart goes out to the police officers, those hit by the car on the bridge and their families”.