Suspected terror attack injures pedestrians outside UK parliament
A car crashed into barriers outside Britain’s Houses of Parliament in a suspected terror attack on Tuesday, injuring a “number of pedestrians” yards from where five people were killed last year.
Police said they had arrested the driver, in his late 20s, and were holding him on suspicion of terrorist offences.
“At this stage, we are treating this as a terrorist incident,” said Scotland Yard, adding that none of the injuries are believed to be “life-threatening.”
Footage shows the silver Ford Fiesta veering across an intersection, hitting a number of cyclists and pedestrians, before speeding into a barrier outside the Houses of Parliament at 7.37 am (06:37 GMT).
Another recording shows injured cyclists and pedestrians lying in the street in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
Armed officers swooped in to arrest the driver, removing him from the vehicle at gunpoint.
Later images showed police holding the man, dressed in jeans and a black puffer jacket, in handcuffs as roads and Underground stations around parliament were sealed off.
“The driver of the car, a man in his late 20s... was arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences,” said police.
“There was nobody else in the vehicle, which remains at the scene and is being searched. No weapons have been recovered at this stage.”
Police have yet to identify the suspect, who was not cooperating with detectives, said Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu.
London Ambulance said they had treated a man and a woman at the scene and taken them to hospital.
The man was later discharged, while the woman remained in hospital, where she was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Basu.
Prime Minister Theresa May, currently in Switzerland, tweeted that her “thoughts are with those injured in the incident in Westminster.”
Witness Ewalina Ochab told the Press Association that the incident “looked intentional.”
“I was walking on the other side. I heard some noise and someone screamed,” she said.
“I turned around and I saw a silver car driving very fast close to the railings, maybe even on the pavement.”