MOWN DOWN AT GATES OF PARLIAMENT
MOMENTS after unleashing carnage on Westminster Bridge, the attacker ploughed his car through crowds near the gates of Parliament itself.
Passers-by were sent flying as the Hyundai i40 crashed into the railings opposite Parliament Square – a crowded viewpoint for tourists taking photographs of the Palace of Westminster.
A woman was pinned between the wrought iron railings and the front of the mangled vehicle, her bare legs and smart black shoes just visible in some distressing images from the scene.
In other pictures, her bloodied right hand could be seen as paramedics attempted to treat her.
At least one man appeared trapped underneath the passenger side of the wrecked car, his arm outstretched and his face just visible.
A third casualty, a man dressed in black, was flung some 12ft down the pavement by the force of the impact.
The Hyundai smashed into the railings with enough force to crumple the bonnet and shatter the windscreen, although its driver was apparently not seriously injured in the crash.
US tourist Bradford Buck, from Connecticut, was confronted by the scene as he walked out of Westminster Tube station.
He said: ‘My wife and I came up from Westminster Underground, we walked across to Parliament and there was a car crashed into the gate there. Police officers were running with machine guns, and there was a man down right next to the car.
‘Police cars just kept coming one after another after another, I’ve never seen such a quick response.’
Fearing for their lives, Mr Buck and his wife sheltered behind concrete barricades – erected to prevent just such an attack – before the couple were moved to safety by police.
For many inside Parliament, the sound of the Hyundai smashing into the ornate railings was the first sign of the unfolding attack at the heart of Britain’s democracy.
The Daily Mail’s political editor, Jason Groves, said: ‘I heard a bang and turned to look out of the window next to me, which looks out over the main entrance to the Palace of Westminster.
‘The sound was loud and unusual, unlike the normal car backfires and fireworks you hear regularly around here. I saw a couple of armed policemen jogging across the yard in the direction of the bang to investigate what had happened. Then, maybe 30 seconds after the bang, the normal crowds of tourists outside started running, as if for their lives.’
After the attacker’s car slammed into the railings, he ran through the main gates, into the courtyard.
Fighting back tears, shocked eyewitness Rick Longley said: ‘There was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out. Then a guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that.’
Medical paraphernalia lay strewn across the pavement outside as paramedics treated the three victims hit by the car. Distressing photographs showed the trio sprawled across the paving stones as the medics fought to save them.
‘They started running for their lives’