At least two people may be dead after a series of incidents near the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge in London. We’re hearing about a shooting and stabbing around the House of Commons and a car that plowed through a crowd on Westminster Bridge. It’s unclear whether the incidents are related, but police have confirmed that they are treating all these incidents as a terrorist attack.
Shooting reported near Houses of Parliament
Reuters is reporting that two people have been shot outside the Houses of Parliament. Eyewitnesses are also telling various media outlets that a police officer was stabbed. MPs at the Houses of Parliament are reporting that they heard three or four shots, and Commons leader David Lidington told the MPs that police shot an assailant.
An eyewitness told reporters that he saw a man wearing black attack a police officer outside the Houses of Parliament before officers shot him two or three times as he attempted to storm the House of Commons. A witness told the BBC that a heavyset man entered the gates at New Palace Yard near Big Ben carrying “a stick of some sort” in his hand.
Two policemen wearing yellow jackets reportedly approached him, and then one of them fell down as he began “moving his arm in a way that suggested he was stabbing or striking the yellow-jacketed man.” The witness added that the other police officer ran to get help and then the assailant ran toward the entrance of the House of Commons before being shot by two plainclothes officers.
4×4 mows through a crowd on Westminster bridge.
We’re also hearing that at least 12 people were hit by a car on Westminster Bridge around the same time as the shooting and stabbing were reported. The connection with the incident at the Houses of Parliament is unclear, but London Police and Scotland Yard are describing it as a “firearms incident.”
Eyewitnesses are tweeting about a 4×4 that reportedly mowed down a crowd on Westminster Bridge and then crashed into the railings at Westminster Palace. Reuters is reporting that two people are lying on the bridge “bleeding heavily.”
Rowena Mason of The Guardian reports that police are saying no terrorists entered the Parliament building. They also say that two of them were caught on Westminster Bridge and one police officer is down.
Timeline of events
The BBC constructed a timeline of the incidents, saying that it appears to have started with a vehicle driving off Westminster Bridge and crashing into the fence at the Houses of Parliament. The media outlet said a man then ran into the main Parliament building and allegedly stabbed a police officer before other officers at the scene shot him.
All of Parliament is in lockdown, and MPS are being told to stay in the main chamber or in their officers. Police have ordered the Westminster underground station to be shut down and are advising people to avoid the area, including Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge, Victoria Street up to Broadway, and the Victoria Embankment up to the Embankment tube station, reports Bloomberg.
