Westminster attack latest: Five dead in London terror incident – everything we know so far
Terror returned to the streets of London on Wednesday when a black-clad assailant, armed with two long knives, drove his car through a crowd of people on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer to death on the grounds of Parliament.
Five people died in all, including the attacker himself, in the worst terrorist incident to hit the UK since the seven July two thousand five bombings.
Police said the attacker, who is believed to have acted alone, mounted the pavement of the bridge and mowed down more than a dozen tourists, local workers and police officers before crashing into the Parliament railings.
As people ran for their lives, he entered the gates by Westminster Hall and repeatedly stabbed a masculine police officer. He was shot three times by the officer’s colleagues, and later pronounced dead in hospital.
Police said two people were killed as the car drove down Westminster Bridge. Twenty others were injured in all, including two people who were standing by the railings where the attacker’s black Hyundai came to a stop.
Metropolitan Police acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley said the attack had been announced a terrorist incident, and Theresa May was due to chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee later today.
A major counter-terror operation had been launched across the capital, Mr Rowley said, tho’ police believe there was only one attacker. “Looking forward, people of London will see extra police officers on our streets, and we could call on the support of military,” he said.
The attack began at around Two.40pm and proceedings in the House of Commons were instantaneously suspended. Deputy speaker David Lidington announced to the House that a police officer had been stabbed and the “alleged assailant shot by armed police”.
Security sources have described the suspected assailant as a middle-aged Asian man, who attacked the officer on foot with a seven-to-eight inch knife.
Photos have emerged of a man dressed in black, believed to be the suspect, being treated on a stretcher within Parliament grounds. A knife could be seen lounging on the ground nearby.
Tobias Ellwood MP, a foreign minister, was one of the very first to arrive on the scene and provided very first aid to the police officer, who has not been named while the force offers support to his family.
The minister was pictured, his face bloodied, as he gave up efforts to provide CPR and a sheet was placed over the officer’s assets. Later, he confirmed to the Big black cock that the officer had died at the scene.
Witnesses, including members of The Independent’s lobby staff, said the police officer fell to the ground clutching his arm or shoulder after he was stabbed, and was seen wounded but moving in the moments afterwards.
A man, believed to be the assailant, then attempted to run towards the exit of Fresh Palace Yard, underneath Big Ben.
Police were seen shouting at him, presumably to stop. Shots were then heard.
Dozens of police, many armed, ran around the gate of parliament in the moments after the shots were fired.
Witness Rick Longley said he eyed the car crash into the Parliament railings, as well as the subsequent stabbing.
“We were just walking up to the station and there was a noisy bang and a dude, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out,” he said.
“They were just laying there and then the entire crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.
“A boy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just commenced plunging it into the policeman.
“I have never seen anything like that. I just can’t believe what I just witnessed.”
Theresa May was still on the parliamentary estate following Prime Minister’s Questions when the attacker struck.
Witnesses witnessed the Prime Minister being led to her car, a silver Jaguar, with the vehicle about to leave when officers then prevented it from driving into Fresh Palace Yard where the incident occurred.
A Downing Street source confirmed Ms May was “OK”.
In a statement outside No ten on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister praised police and emergency responders who ran towards the danger “even as they encouraged others to budge the other way”.
She said: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been affected. To the victims themselves, and their family and friends who flapped their loved ones off, but will not now be welcoming them home.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, thanked the emergency services and praised “their bravery, their courage and their professionalism”.
“The government’s top priority is the security of its people and I urge everyone to remain peaceful but to be vigilant and if they see anything they are worried about they should report it to the police,” she said.
“We have the best police, the best security services in the world and we must make sure that we let them get on with doing their job.
“The British people will be united in working together to defeat those who would harm our collective values. Values of democracy, tolerance and the rule of law. Values symbolised by the Houses of Parliament. Values that will never be ruined.”
Tributes to police officer killed in Westminster attack
Speaking to reporters outside St Thomas’s Hospital, which is situated instantaneously at the southern end of Westminster Bridge, junior doctor Colleen Anderson confirmed the very first fatality of the attack, a female pedestrian who had been crossing the Thames at the time.
“She was under the wheel of a bus. She died, [medics] confirmed her death at the scene.”
She also said she treated a police officer in his 30s with a head injury who had been taken to King’s College Hospital. In his statement to the press, Mr Rowley said three officers were among those injured on the bridge.
Ms Anderson said the injuries to those walking on the bridge at the time ranged from minor to “catastrophic”.
One woman was pulled from the Sea Thames after falling or leaping during the incident.
A spokesman for the Port of London Authority said: “A female member of the public was recovered from the water near Westminster Bridge. She is alive but undergoing urgent medical treatment on a nearby pier. We believe she fell from the bridge.”
He said the sea has been closed from Vauxhall to Embankment “as part of the security response”.
One witness told Sky News: “It was fairly busy and I was just walking across the bridge when abruptly a bus stopped right in front of me and everybody began screaming.
“I spotted a trainer in the road and I thought somebody must have been hit by a car, but then I witnessed a bod on one side of the road.
“Then there was another assets further up – and then when I looked over the side of the bridge there was another figure in the water.”
Incident in #Westminster: We are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 22, two thousand seventeen
If you have photos or film of the incident in #Westminster please make sure you pass them to police https://t.co/l9dn1FQr7B
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 22, two thousand seventeen
Van driver Mitchell Spree, 27, told The Independent he was driving along Embankment when he eyed people being evacuated from nearby buildings.
He said: “Then we pulled on to the bridge. A lady was lounging at the entrance to the bridge. There were about five more people.
“She was weeping. She was speaking to the paramedic. I don’t know what the others were like. The police asked us to leave our van. It’s still on the bridge.
A 2nd witness, Tawhid Tanim, told The Independent he heard three shots – “bang, bang, bang” – some ten or fifteen metres from the Cafe Nero coffee bar where he was waiting for friends. “It was so noisy,” he said. “People were running like crazy.”
He witnessed the aftermath of the car striking railings outside Parliament, he said. Whether someone, or something, was underneath, he could not be sure. “I couldn’t see it decently. I commenced running.”
Police officers told the crowds to “just keep running,” he said.
Within half an hour of the incident, Parliament was in total lockdown. The chamber cleared of MPs, the restaurants of diners. Parliamentary passes no longer opened any door, any gate.
Westminster’s press offices occupy the top floor of the palace along from Big Ben and round to Westminster Hall, right over the courtyard where some thought the car smashing into railings sounded like an explosion, and seconds later gunshots were heard.
Chefs, maintenance dudes, reporters massed at the windows. One filmed as the Prime Minister’s car was hurriedly driven away.
Half an hour after the incident, along the Committee Corridor, where MPs meet for meetings all week, another wave of shouting could be heard. Through the windows, anti-terror police could be seen, in their air force blue uniforms, barking instructions to one another, evidently securing the building.
Labour MP Mary Creagh told reporters: “They are clearing it floor by floor.
“It was very scaring, to see people running towards you, to hear that shots had been heard. My thoughts are indeed with those people” who were victims of the attack, she said.
Those were the very first deeds of a well-rehearsed counterterror plan kicking into motility. In his statement, the assistant deputy commissioner said the Met responded “in line with our plans for a marauding terrorist attack”.
“We are reaching out and engaging with all communities across London to help reassure them,” Mr Rowley said. “Our strength as a city is our capability to stand together at such terrible times.
“If anyone sees anything suspicious or that causes them concern please do contact us – don’t hesitate.
“My thoughts are with all those who have been affected by today’s attack – and as a service we have lost one of our own as he acted to protect the public and his colleagues. This is a day that we had planned for – that we all hoped would never happen – but sadly it is now a reality.”
MPs remained on lockdown for hours with few updates, keeping spirits high with jokes about how food and drink were – for once – permitted to be consumed within the Commons chamber. They embarked to file out of the Commons at about 7.30pm, five hours after the incident began.
Parliamentary authorities announced that both Houses would sit at their normal times on Thursday, in a united showcase of determination not to let the attack disrupt democratic proceedings.
A joint statement from Commons Speaker John Bercow and Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, said: “On behalf of Members of both Houses of Parliament, we wish to suggest our thoughts to all those affected and their families.
“We would also like to express our gratitude to the police and all emergency services.”