London attack: Policeman among 4 dead in Westminster outrage
Four people, including a policeman, were killed on Wednesday after a terrorist mowed down pedestrians in a car before attempting to continue his rampage inside the Palace of Westminster, police said.
THURSDAY UPDATE: Police make seven arrests
The other dead included the assailant and pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. At least 40 others were injured - including some with "catastrophic" injuries - in the car incident.
Met Police Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, head of counter terrorism, said that at around 1440 GMT the assailant mounted the pavement and rammed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before crashing into the outer fence near the landmark Big Ben clock tower and running through the main gates into the houses of parliament.
He then stabbed a police officer after being challenged before he was shot dead. The policeman, who later died of his injuries, was named as 48-year-old Keith Palmer.
Prime Minister Theresa May was seen getting into a silver Jaguar as the incident was developing.
The French prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed that French students were among those injured. Junior doctor Colleen Anderson who ran across from nearby St Thomas' Hospital said there were "people across the bridge. There were some with minor injuries, some catastrophic".
"Some had injuries they could walk away from or who have life-changing injuries. There were maybe a dozen [injured]," she said.
London Ambulance Service confirmed that they had treated at least 10 patients on Westminster Bridge and had "put a number of hospitals on alert as we continue to respond to this incident".
The Port of London Authority confirmed that a seriously injured woman was recovered from the Thames.
"She has been brought ashore and is undergoing urgent medical treatment. The working assumption is that she fell or jumped from the bridge," said spokesman Martin Garside.
"We are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise," police said in a statement.
Parliamentary sketchwriter Quentin Letts told the BBC he saw a man attack a police officer inside the main gates to parliament before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the House of Commons.
“I saw a thick-set man in black clothes come through the gates into New Palace Yard, just below Big Ben,” he said.
"He had something in his hand, it looked like a stick of some sort, and he was challenged by a couple of policemen in yellow jackets."
"And one of the yellow-jacketed policemen fell down and we could see the man in black moving his arm in a way that suggested he was stabbing or striking the yellow-jacketed policeman."
"As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plain-clothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell."
MPs in the House of Commons were kept in the chamber as events unfolded.
Transport for London said Westminster underground station has been shut at the request of the police.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: "Police are asking people to avoid the following areas: Parliament Square; Whitehall; Westminster Bridge; Lambeth Bridge; Victoria Street up to the junction with Broadway and the Victoria Embankment up to Embankment tube.
(Additional reporting by Michele Maatouk, Oliver Haill, Josh White and Andrew Schonberg)