Pedestrians run down & an officer knifed
than an hour.
Gunshots could be heard as the House of Commons session was suspended. Members of Parliament told the BBC they heard three or four gunshots. A heavy police presence quickly filled the area, and news crews reported that two people were seen lying on the grounds of Parliament.
Cops quickly surrounded the mortally wounded attacker as he lay on the cobblestone plaza. One police officer kept his foot on what appeared to be a knife, while pointing a rifle at the terrorist.
Metropolitan Police Commander B.J. Harrington said “a full counterterrorism investigation was underway,” and police presence around the city was ramped up for the evening rush-hour commute.
Witness Jayne Wilkinson told Sky News she saw a middle-aged man carrying a knife “7 or 8 inches long.”
“He was running through those gates, toward Parliament, and the police were chasing him,” she told Sky News.
At least 10 people were treated on the Westminster Bridge, according to the London Ambulance Service.
Another woman was pulled alive from the Thames after jumping for her life.
Former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish channel TVN24 he was in a cab when he heard a crash. When he looked up, Sikorski said, he saw people lying on the pavement.
“People started running up to them,” he told TVN24. “I saw one person who gave no sign of life. Another man was bleeding from his head.”
Condemnation was swift from within Britain and across the globe.
“Heartbreaking,” tweeted British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a former mayor of London, who is in the U.S. meeting with American lawmakers.
“This is not the first attack on London or our Parliament — and won’t be the last — but our values will prevail.”
Vice President Pence tweeted a photo of his meeting with Johnson, and said, “We remain in solidarity to defeat those who threaten us.”