Parliament car crash - as it happened: Police search three properties as focus falls on terror suspect after 'appalling incident'
UK's terror threat level remains 'severe', Theresa May says, meaning fresh attack is highly likely
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Your support makes all the difference.Counter-terror police searched three properties in the Midlands after a car crashed into security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament, injuring three people.
Three police forces were involved in raids in Birmingham and Nottingham on Tuesday afternoon following the arrest of a 29-year-old British man on suspicion of terror offences.
Armed officers had swarmed Westminster at about 7.40am on Tuesday, when a silver Ford Fiesta ploughed into cyclists and pedestrians outside parliament before being halted by security barriers.
Images posted to social media showed a man, wearing a black puffer jacket and surrounded by officers, being led away in handcuffs from the hatchback. Detectives said later on Tuesday they believed the car had been driven to London from Birmingham overnight.
The Fiesta was spotted in the Tottenham Court Road area at 1.25am, the Metropolitan Police said, where it remained until about 6am. It was then driven to Westminster.
“There was not a police car in pursuit of the vehicle” when it crashed, Neil Basu, the Met’s head of counter-terrorism, told reporters.
Three people were hurt in the crash, one seriously.
Theresa May said that terrorists would “never succeed” in dividing the UK, after Donald Trump blamed “crazy animals” for the attack in a tweet.
The crash was an “appalling incident”, the prime minister said, adding that the terror threat facing the country remained “severe”, meaning another attack was highly likely.
See below how we covered developments in this story
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Rebecca Clark, a 52-year-old American tourist, is on the last day of her holiday in London and was due to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament this morning.
She told The Independent: "I'm just frustrated mainly - I live in New York so we have these kind of things as well. They are being cautious and that's good."
Ms Clark said the incident had not affected her view of London, where she previously studied and lived in the 80s.
"It's always a good time to visit London, this is just unfortunate."
Here is footage from the scene as armed police swooped on the car after it crashed into the barriers outside the Houses of Parliament.
Local businessman Jason Williams said he had seen a man drive a car into a bollard outside the Houses of Parliament.
"He had driven it at speed - more than 40 mph. There was smoke coming out of the car," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"I have seen people on the ground, lying on the road. I don't know if they have actually been hit by the vehicle or not. I saw at least 10 people lying down.
"I was told basically to move away, to run. I have run for my life."
An eyewitness told BBC news he thought the crash was "deliberate."
He said he saw the man driving towards the Houses of Parliament "at speed - 40-50mph, maybe more.
"In my opinion it was deliberate. He didn't swerve into it, it was a direct hit."
Jason Williams, 45, from Kennington, was walking to work when he saw the incident.
He told the Press Association: "I saw a car going at high speed towards Parliament.
"It hit a bollard. A dark looking man, I would say maybe Asian, Mediterranean."
He added: "It looked deliberate. It didn't look like an accident. How do you do that by accident? It was a loud bang."
The Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the crash.
"While we are keeping an open mind, the Met's Counter-Terrorism Command is leading the investigation into the Westminster incident," Scotland Yard said.
Several bus routes have been diverted due to the lockdown in Parliament Square.
TfL says it is accepting bus tickets within Zone 1.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said he is in "close contact" with the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
"Thank you to the first responders who were on the scene so quickly," Mr Khan said on Twitter. "Enquiries are continuing. Westminster station is closed."
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed its Counter-Terrorism Command is leading the investigation after a car crashed into security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament, injuring at least two pedestrians.
It comes just 11 months after a partially exploded bomb was left on a tube train - the last major incident to rock Britain.
Here is a timeline of attacks in recent years:
- 15 September, 2017: A partially exploded bomb planted on a District line train left more than 51 people injured.
Ahmed Hassan, 18, was jailed for at least 34 years for planting the Parsons Green tube bomb which caused a huge fireball.
- 19 June, 2017: One man killed and several others are injured after a man rammed his van into worshippers in north London.
Darren Osborne, 47, of no fixed address in Cardiff - who had been radicalised by far-right material, was jailed for at least 43 years after being found guilty in February of murder and attempted murder.
- 3 June, 2017: Eight people are killed in a terror attack around London Bridge.
A van ploughed into people on the bridge before the three attackers carried out a knife rampage in Borough Market. The perpetrators - Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 - were shot dead by police.
- 22 May, 2017: Twenty-two people - including children - are killed in a bombing at a pop concert in Manchester.
Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device as crowds of music fans, many of them youngsters, left Manchester Arena following a performance by US singer Ariana Grande.
- 22 March, 2017: Five people are killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster.
Khalid Masood drove a hire car over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians before crashing into railings outside the Palace of Westminster.
He stabbed Pc Keith Palmer, 48, to death. Also killed in the atrocity were US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, and Britons Aysha Frade, 44, and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes. Masood was shot dead by police.
- 16 June, 2016: Jo Cox, a Labour MP, is murdered outside her constituency office in Batley, West Yorkshire.
The mother-of-two, 41, was shot and stabbed multiple times by right-wing extremist Thomas Mair. He was later handed a whole-life prison sentence for her murder.
- 22 May, 2013: Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered by Islamist extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
The 25-year-old serviceman was walking near his barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, when the pair rammed him with a car before attempting to hack off his head with knives. The killers were jailed at the Old Bailey in February 2014.
- 7 July, 2005: Four suicide bombers kill 52 and injure hundreds of others in blasts on the London Underground network and a bus.
Twenty-six died in the bombing at Russell Square on the Piccadilly line, six in the bombing at Edgware Road on the Circle line, seven in the bombing at Aldgate on the Circle line, and 13 in the bombing on a bus at Tavistock Square.
