Car hits pedestrians in suspected terrorist attack at UK parliament

LONDON - A man deliberately drove a car into London pedestrians and cyclists on Tuesday before ramming it into barriers outside Britain's parliament in what appeared to be the second terrorist attack at the building in just under 18 months, police said.

Three people were injured. The driver, a man in his 20s, was arrested by armed officers moments later. He was not cooperating with detectives, the British police counter-terrorism chief said.

"Given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method, and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident," the officer, London Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, told reporters.

In March 2017, Khalid Masood, 52, killed four people on nearby Westminster Bridge and stabbed an unarmed police officer to death in the grounds of parliament before being shot dead.

It was the first of five attacks in Britain last year that police designated as terrorism, three of which used vehicles as weapons.

Basu said the suspect in Tuesday's incident was in custody but not cooperating. He said the man had not been formally identified, but was not believed to be known to security forces.

The BBC, citing unnamed sources, said the man was from the Birmingham area and known to police, although not to intelligence or counter-terrorism agencies.

NO OTHER SUSPECTS

Basu said there were currently no other suspects from the scene of the incident, and no indications of further danger.

Police said a silver Ford Fiesta had driven through a group of cyclists and pedestrians during the morning rush hour before hitting a barrier in front of the Houses of Parliament at 7:37 a.m. (0637 GMT).

Video footage showed the vehicle making an illegal turn before veering across the road and into a security lane leading to parliament before smashing into the protective barrier as two police officers jumped to safety.

The man was detained on suspicion of terrorist offences and no weapons were found, Basu said.

Two people were taken to hospital and one woman was still receiving treatment for serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Armed officers swarmed the scene and sealed off a large area around parliament that is usually bustling with tourists and government workers.

"I saw the cyclists, injured cyclists. I don't know if he's hit these people or if they've just dived to escape," bystander Jason Williams told reporters. "It didn't swerve, there was not another car going behind him. It looked like it was planned."

Images shot by a Euronews journalist showed police pointing their guns at the vehicle shortly after the crash. Footage on social media showed a man being led away in handcuffs.

Graphic of attack site: https://tmsnrt.rs/2KRiTAD

"TERRIBLE SCENES"

Prime Minister Theresa May, who like other lawmakers is on holiday during parliament's summer recess, urged Britons to remain vigilant but to carry on as normal.

"For the second time in as many years the home of our democracy, which is a potent symbol of our precious values of tolerance and freedom, has just witnessed terrible scenes just yards from its door," she said in a statement.

Britain is on its second-highest threat level, "severe", meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

May's spokesman said that, since Masood's attack in Westminster last year, 13 Islamist and four far-right plots had been foiled. At the end of June, security services were carrying out 676 live investigations.

Last week, a Muslim convert admitted plotting to kill more than 100 people by driving a truck into pedestrians on London's Oxford Street, the capital's major shopping thoroughfare.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has previously spoken out about security issues in London, tweeted: "These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength."

Cordons around parliament began to be lifted about six hours after the incident and Westminster Underground station, close to parliament, was reopened. However, streets immediately surrounding the scene remained closed off.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

4 dead, at least 20 injured in UK parliament 'terrorist' attack

LONDON — Four people were killed and at least 20 injured in London on Wednesday after a car plowed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament in what police called a "marauding terrorist attack."

The dead included the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, while the other two victims were among the pedestrians hit by the car as it tore along Westminster Bridge before crashing into railings just outside parliament.

"We've declared this as a terrorist incident and the counter-terrorism command are carrying out a full-scale investigation into the events today," Mark Rowley, Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer, told reporters.

"The attack started when a car was driven over Westminster Bridge, hitting and injuring a number of members of the public, also including three police officers.

"A car then crashed near to parliament and at least one man, armed with a knife continued the attack and tried to enter parliament."

Reuters reporters inside parliament at the time heard loud bangs and shortly afterwards saw the knifeman and the stabbed policeman lying on the ground in a courtyard within the gates of parliament.

A Reuters photographer saw at least a dozen people injured on the bridge. His photographs showed people lying on the ground, some of them bleeding heavily and one under a bus.

A woman was pulled alive, but with serious injuries, from the Thames, the Port of London Authority said. The circumstances of her fall into the river were unknown.

Three French schoolchildren aged 15 or 16 were among those injured in the attack, French officials said.

The attack took place on the first anniversary of attacks by Islamist militants that killed 32 people in Brussels.

Prime Minister Theresa May was being kept updated and was due to chair a meeting of the government's crisis response committee.

"The thoughts of the PM and the government are with those killed and injured in this appalling incident, and with their families," her office said in a statement.

Chaotic scenes

Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes during the attack.

"I just saw a car go out of control and just go into pedestrians on the bridge," said Bernadette Kerrigan, who was on a tour bus on the bridge at the time, in an interview with Sky News.

"As we were going across the bridge, we saw people lying on the floor, they were obviously injured. I saw about 10 people maybe. And then the emergency services started to arrive. Everyone was just running everywhere."

The House of Commons, which was in session at the time, was suspended and lawmakers were asked to stay inside.

Interior minister Amber Rudd said the government's top priority was people's security.

"The British people will be united in working together to defeat those who would harm our shared values: values of democracy, tolerance and the rule of law," she said.

May spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump about the attack, the White House said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned what he described as "horrific acts of violence."

Polish former Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who witnessed the attack from a taxi as he crossed the bridge, said he saw five victims and made a video of the scene.

"I heard something that sounded like a small car crash. Then I looked out of the window and saw that there was one person lying on the asphalt," he told Reuters.

"I did not see the face of the person lying on the asphalt, but the person was not moving, it was not showing any signs of life. One of the men I saw, his head was bleeding very badly. But the person I filmed - no, that person was not showing any signs of life."

Journalist Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail newspaper told LBC radio that he had witnessed the stabbing of the policeman and the shooting of the assailant from his office in the parliament building.

"He (the assailant) ran in through the open gates ... He set about one of the policemen with what looked like a stick," Letts said.

"The policeman fell over on the ground and it was quite horrible to watch and then having done that, he disengaged and ran towards the House of Commons entrance used by MPs (members of parliament) and got about 20 yards or so when two plain-clothed guys with guns shot him."

In Edinburgh, the Scottish parliament suspended a planned debate and vote on independence as the news from London came in.

Britain is on its second-highest alert level of "severe" meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.

In May 2013, two British Islamists stabbed to death soldier Lee Rigby on a street in southeast London.

In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 commuters and themselves in suicide bombings on the British capital's transport system in what was London's worst peacetime attack.

Wednesday's attack was near the location where, in 1979, Airey Neave, a Member of Parliament who was a close aide to Margaret Thatcher, was killed by a car-bomb claimed by the Irish National Liberation Army.

source: news.abs-cbn.com