LONDON, March 22. /TASS/. Wednesday's terrorist act near Westminster Palace took away the lives of three people and left no less than twenty other wounded, Mark Rowley, the Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations in the Metropolitan Police Service told a news briefing near Scotland Yard headquarters.
He said the terrorist act took place when a car driving by Westminster Bridge wedged into pedestrians on the sidewalk, including three police officers. Then the car rammed into a building near the Houses of Parliament. After that one man as a minimum armed with a dagger continues attacking the passers-by and tried to break into the Westminster Palace.
The total number of lethal casualties from the incident is four, inclusive of the attacker who was shot and killed by a policeman.
British parliament has suspended all the sessions in the wake of an incident outside the Westminster Palace, a TASS correspondent said in an eyewitness report from inside the building.
One could read on all the TV screens inside the palace that all the sessions were suspended until further notice. At the time of reporting, the compound was in full lockdown.
House of Commons leader David Lidington told fellow-deputies reports from police were indicative of the importance of staying inside the building.
On the whole, the atmosphere on the parliament’s premises was calm. The only change compared with an hour before was that the deputies and the lords were strolling up and down the corridors with cell phones in their hands and, most obviously, texting to inform others they were OK or checking the latest news.
Ten injured on London's Westminster Bridge
No less than ten people were injured on London's Westminster Bridge on Wednesday when a car rammed into a crowd of pedestrians, the London Ambulance said.
"We can confirm we have treated at least 10 patients on Westminster Bridge and have put a number of hospitals on alert as we continue to respond to this incident," it said in a statement.
"We were called at 2.40pm today, with the first ambulance crew arriving within six minutes," it said.
"We have sent a number of resources to the scene including ambulance crews, London’s Air Ambulance and our Hazardous Area Response Team," the ambulance service said. It asked members of the public to take account of how busy the emergency medical services were in connection with the incident and "to only call us in a genuine emergency."
The operator of London Eye, the world-famous terris wheel on the south bank of the Thames almost opposite the Westminster Palace, and the nearby Sealife London aquarium said the two facilities locked down with visitors inside for security reasons in the wake of a terrorist act near on Westminster Bridge and shooting near the Houses of Parliament. "At present we are holding all of our guests within our attractions as per tried and tested security procedures," a notification from the London Eye said.
BBC said several other attactions including the London Dungeon, Madame Tussauds and Southbank Centre were also closed with visitors kept inside.
First photo of the Parliament terror attack suspect as he is wheeled into an ambulance after being shot by police https://t.co/WiQ5YFzVR9 pic.twitter.com/n7NISnKnkY
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) 22 March 2017