‘It was like a scene from a TV drama, it didn’t feel real to me’

Every time Big Ben chimes, Westminster Correspondent Lindsay Razaq will remember the moment she witnessed yesterday’s terror attack

Every weekday I make the hour-long journey from the suburbs to Westminster in the heart of London.

Each morning I get off the Tube and walk on to the parliamentary estate through the Underground entrance.

I say hello to the police officers because it’s polite, they are nice and also because I’m aware they – and all their colleagues manning the site’s many other gates – often have to stand in the cold for long periods of time.

But yesterday – on the anniversary of last year’s Brussels airport attack – I was reminded in the most horrific of ways that every minute of every day of their working lives they are risking much more than chilly feet. Every day they put their safety on the line to protect all of us who work at parliament – from the prime minister to little old me – and to defend democracy itself.

Let’s pause to think about that for a moment. It’s a big deal.

My working day began as normal.

After Prime Minister’s Questions – the main event at Westminster on a Wednesday – I sat down at my computer to watch day two of the Holyrood debate on Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a second independence referendum.

Within minutes, however, I was distracted by a colleague who heard what he thought was a car crash nearby.

I immediately swivelled in my chair, which is right next to a window overlooking New Palace Yard.

This is the open space within the parliamentary precincts next to Parliament Square.

What unfolded in front of me didn’t seem real – it was like a sequence from a film or TV crime drama.

All at once a scrum of people ran through one of the gates.

Then amid the utter chaos that ensued – I recall a struggle of some kind – two or three shots were fired and two men collapsed to the ground one after the other.

Police and security guards swarmed around them as armed officers searched the premises for other attackers.

In the following minutes, MPs were locked in the Commons chamber and journalists told not to leave their offices.

A police officer came round and warned us to crouch down away from the window as the incident was ongoing.

A little while later an announcement came over the tannoy: “Due to a security incident, all buildings have been locked down. Please remain in your current location until further notice.”

It was only then that the reality of what I had just witnessed started to sink in.

I began remembering some details, a man in dark clothes firing a small, black hand gun – presumably a police officer – and people rushing to assist with CPR.

But it was hard to piece together the order of events.

And very quickly I began to doubt myself, convinced my mind was playing tricks on me, until others confirmed they had seen the same.

There’s one thing I do remember very clearly, however – the loud, solemn chimes of Big Ben carrying on regardless.

That must have been 3pm – only 20 minutes later, but what seemed like an eternity.

As it emerged the police officer who was stabbed died, my thoughts turned first to his family and then his colleagues, the brave men and women who keep watch on our behalf.

No doubt they will return to work tomorrow and the day after – as we will all have to do.

From now on, saying hello seems all the more important.

PANIC: An air ambulance arrives while emergency services attended to a man and a police officer, bottom

MPs were locked in the Commons chamber while police dealt with the attack

Armed police at the incident outside Westminster