London terror incident: House of Commons session suspended after car and knife attack
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Your support makes all the difference.Proceedings at the House of Commons have been suspended after a man was shot outside Parliament.
Staff inside the building were told to stay in their offices. MPs that were in the chamber when sitting was suspended were told to stay inside the House of Commons.
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.
Parliament will be in shutdown until further notice, the Speaker said.
Officials made the announcement in the chamber as parliamentary activity was going on.
London police said they were called to a firearms incident on Westminster Bridge near the British parliament on Wednesday.
"We were called at approx 2:40 pm to reports of an incident at Westminster Bridge. Being treated as a firearms incident - police on scene," the Metropolitan police said on Twitter.
Dennis Burns, who was just entering Parliament for a meeting when the security alert happened, told the Press Association: "As I was coming through the doors at Portcullis House, a policeman grabbed someone who was coming in and threw him out.
"As we were coming though the glass doors I was told by one security guard to get out while another one told me to get in.
"As I walked in I heard a security guard get a radio message saying 'a policeman has been stabbed'.
"Then I walked in as police officers and security start rushing out of the front doors on to the street.
"When I got inside I was wondering what the hell was going on and I saw dozens of panicked people running down the street. The first stream was around 30 people and the second stream was 70 people.
"It looked like they were running for their lives."
Commons leader David Lidington said the House of Commons would "remain in lockdown" until further notice.
He said: "I shall endeavour to do the very best I can, both at the despatch box and by communicating with my opposite numbers in other political parties, to ensure that Members are kept aware of what is happening but at the moment the very clear advice from the police and the director of security in the House is that we should remain under suspension and that the chamber should remain in lockdown until we receive advice that it is safe to go back to normal procedures."
Shadow leader of the House Valerie Vaz said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the police officer and to thank the police and all the security services and all the staff for looking after us so well."
Mr Lidington, in a later statement to MPs, confirmed the House of Commons would adjourn for the day.
He said: "There have been conversations through the usual channels.
"I hope the House would agree that in the current circumstances it would not be right to continue with today's business."
MPs shouted in favour of a motion to adjourn the sitting.
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Our corespondent Lizzie Dearden is making her way to Westminster.
She says people are calm despite multiple helicopters flying overhead.
A witness, who was in the Commons for a job interview, told The Independent: "I was about to leave out of Westminster Hall then loads of people came through screaming."
He said they were tourists and are now being held in the Central Lobby.
I'm in Westminster, where the air ambulance is has landed in Parliament square. Crowds pushed back more than 100m from bridge http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7iEpl7W0AAKPor.jpg
Police now pushing people back further from Paliament Square 'for their own safety'
Eyewitness video has shown five people being "mown down" by a car on Westminster Bridge.
Radoslaw Sikorski posted a video to Twitter purporting to show people lying injured in the road on Westminster Bridge.
Mr Sikorski, a senior fellow at Harvard Centre for European Studies, said he saw at least five people lying on the ground after being "mown down" by a car.
"I heard what I thought what I thought was just a collision and then I looked through the window of the taxi and someone down, obviously in great distress," he told the BBC.
"Then I saw a second person down, and I started filming, then I saw three more people down, one of them bleeding profusely."
.@POTUS has been briefed on the situation in the U.K. Continuing to monitor and update
Deputy Presiding Officer Linda Fabiani says security at Holyrood is "under review" in light of Westminster incident
Kevin Schofield, the editor of PoliticsHome.com heard "a very loud bang" from the press gallery inside the Houses of Parliament followed by lots of shouting and men running around.
He initially thought it was a car crash but then he looked outside the window to a heavily-guarded area outside which is out of bounds to the public.
He told Sky News: "Someone rushed through, attacked a policeman, a policeman went down, another policeman came and he was rescued.
"The man who had assaulted him got up and he appeared to be carrying either a knife or a gun. Then we heard gunfire, lots of gunfire, maybe five or six rounds.
"All I remember seeing is the man approaching the police officer probably with a knife and then there was gunfire.
"He was walking towards a second policeman with his arm outstretched, with what looked like a knife in his hand, having already assaulted another policeman.
"It was at that moment that you realised that something serious was happening - a man had broken in to Parliament and had a weapon."
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