Tasered, ‘angry’ man who pulled out knife at gates of Parliament
A KNIFEMAN was Tasered and arrested outside Parliament yesterday on the anniversary of MP Jo Cox’s murder.
Armed police responded to shouts of ‘knife, knife, knife’ after the suspect allegedly pulled out a weapon when officers approached.
It happened yards from the site of the Westminster terror attack – but Scotland Yard said it was keeping an ‘open mind’ on whether it was a terrorist act while it investigates.
The bearded man, aged in his 30s, was said to have been acting suspiciously for ten minutes when police moved in. Witnesses
‘His fists were clenched’
described seeing the ‘agitated’ suspect standing outside Parliament’s main gates.
Bradley Allen, 19, from Barking, east London, said: ‘I saw him, his fists were clenched and he seemed like an angry geezer.
‘He shouted something and he went to run towards the gates and within seconds police had him pinned on the ground and were telling everyone to move back. It was over in seconds.’
He added: ‘He was staring at me and my friend – I said to my mate he looked quite suspicious.’
After the man approached the gate, he was surrounded by police ‘within seconds’ and pinned down. ‘It was so fast. I didn’t see any weapons,’ Mr Allen said.
The first indication of the incident was when the bang of the Taser was heard inside the Palace of Westminster and armed officers were seen scrambling to the scene.
Traffic was allowed to continue along roads around Parliament Square, and officers did not immediately clear the area.
The suspect was taken away by police half an hour after the incident started.
The arrest took place near to where terrorist Khalid Masood stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death in March, and next to flowers laid in tribute to the officer and the four other victims killed in the Westminster Bridge attack.
After the incident, Parliament was locked down amid an already heightened state of alert after the Manchester and London Bridge atrocities.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said yesterday: ‘At this time it is too early to understand the motivation so we have not declared this a terrorist incident.
‘However given the location, the circumstances and recent tragic events, the MPS Counter Terrorism Command will be investigating this incident.
‘We remain open-minded as to whether terrorism was a motive.’
Westminster quickly reopened after police collected evidence including a belt and what is believed to be the knife the suspect carried. Last night, there was a suggestion that the arrested man was undergoing psychiatric assessment.
It comes after the Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, the national head of counter-terrorism policing, warned that there had been a shift in the nature of terrorist attacks.
He said that while previous atrocities had been carried out by networks of terror cells affiliated with Al Qaeda or the IRA, now ‘a disproportionate number’ involved vulnerable or mentally ill people.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed an arrest had been made and there were no reports of any injuries.