by Gary Willig
Ramming and stabbing attack near British Parliament building leaves 4 dead, including terrorist attacker.
At least four people, including a police officer, were killed and twenty people were reported injured in a vehicular ramming attack near the British Parliament in London Wednesday afternoon, according to media reports.
According to witnesses, a car mowed down a dozen pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge before crashing into the gates outside of the Portcullis House, The Sun reported.
Two men have reportedly been shot by police after attempting to to stab officers outside of the Houses of Parliament.
“We heard a loud bang, lots of shouting and saw men running around. Someone rushed through, attacked a policeman,” a witness told The Sun. “He appeared to be carrying a knife or a gun. We then heard gunfire, five or six rounds.”
In addition to the three victims. the terrorist was also killed.
"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 announced on Twitter.
Parliament sessions have been suspended following the incident.
Commons Leader David Lidington told MPs: "What I am able to say to the House is there has been a serious incident within the estate. It seems that a police officer has been stabbed, that the alleged assailant was shot by armed police."
"An air ambulance is currently attending the scene to remove the casualties.
"There are also reports of further violent incidents in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster but I hope colleagues on all sides will appreciate that it'd be wrong of me to go into further details until we have confirmation from the police and from the House security authorities about what is going on."
The London police announced that they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely condemned the attack. "Israel expresses its deep shock at the terror attack in London today and its solidarity with the victims and with the people and government of Great Britain. Terror is terror wherever it occurs and we will fight it relentlessly."
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said: "Israel stands as one with the British people as we all work together to defeat the scourge of terrorism. We send our condolences and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured."
Gary Willig
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/227131
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment