London attack as it happened: Five dead and 40 injured after terror incident in Westminster
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A police officer has been stabbed and an alleged assailant shot by armed police outside the Houses of Parliament.
Here's what we know so far:
- Police officer died after being stabbed outside Parliament
- Two people reported dead after a car ploughed into crowd on Westminster bridge causing multiple casualties
- Metropolitan police are treating this as a terrorist incident
- Eyewitness account of the stabbing incident outside Parliament gate
- Donald Trump has been briefed on the attack, Sean Spicer confirms
- Theresa May was '40 yards away' from scene of stabbing, was immediately evacuated and confirmed safe
- House of Commons session suspended and MPs evacuated
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load
Commons Leader David Lidington has told MPs a "police officer has been stabbed" and the "alleged assailant was shot by armed police" following a "serious" incident within the parliamentary estate.
Minutes later, an emergency services helicopter landed in Parliament Square, as sirens were heard outside.
Iframe:
Air ambulance medics came from the helicopter to assist the casualties.
Two people lay on the ground in the yard. One of them appeared to have had clothes removed as emergency workers attempted to resuscitate the pair.
Parliament Square was closed to traffic.
Social media users are starting to praise the officers involved for their bravery, and beginning to post gestures of defiance and solidarity. 
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Every day since 9/11 at work in Commons I thought about my escape route/place to hide. But police at gates cannot run/hide. Such bravery.
Retweeted by Markfergusonuk
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Just saw a bloke with a can of Stella and a union flag at the parliament cordon shouting about Muslims
London Ambulance Service says that it has treated at least 10 people on Westminster Bridge. It didn't comment on their condition.
A Whitehall source telling me that government departments - at least some - are on lockdown
.@CarolineLucas ' office G32 available if they want somewhere to sit and some Wine Gums. twitter.com/BethRigby/stat…
All journalists now being evacuated from inside Parliament
Some staff in some departments now being sent home, another source says
Mary Creagh MP was making her way to vote, using a tunnel from Portcullis House, she told The Independent.
She told reporter Jon Sharman: "We had had the division bell. I had left it a bit late because I was in a meeting.
"We could see that the police we already on alert. There were two armed police officers at the bottom of our escalators, which is very unusual."
She found "a whole crowd of people running back towards me" shouting "Get back".
"I just turned on my heels. We ran to the doors to get out of the building. We [have] one-in-one-out doors so they're very slow. There were about 40 people trying to get out. I was banging on the doors."
A security guard fully opened the doors "after what seemed like a lifetime" but was probably only about 15 seconds, she said. After alerting staff at Westminster tube station, she and the crowd made their way along Embankment to New Scotland Yard, she said.
Joe Watts, The Independent's political editor, was at Westminster when the attack happened. He has shared his thoughts. 
The screams heard when the car ploughed through people outside Westminster were unlike any I have ever heard
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As the incident was still unfolding, while some people ran away, many others rushed to it, to see was happening
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Watching armed police and paramedics work around the victims and assailant so professionally while most people were dumbstruck was amazing
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I have never seen so many officers and paramedics descend on to one place so quickly
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The police officer who was injured is a hero
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