FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Car mowed down up to a dozen people on Westminster Bridge - just outside the Palace of Westminster

Police officer dies after being stabbed by knife-wielding attacker

Scotland Yard says five people have died including a policeman and the suspected attacker

At least 40 people injured

Houses of Parliament on lockdown

Met Police treating incident as terror attack

Theresa May was in the division lobby when she was whisked away by plain clothes policeman in a car

Eyewitnesses said bodies were scattered on the ground on Westminster Bridge near Parliament. Scotland Yard said the attack is being treated "as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise". At least five people have died after a knifeman mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge then stabbed a policeman in front of Parliament before being shot by armed officers. One witness said she saw an Asian man carrying an eight-inch knife heading towards the building. Jayne Wilkinson said: "We were taking photos of Big Ben and we saw all the people running towards us, and then there was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches long.

There was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches long Witness Jayne Wilkinson

"And then there were three shots fired, and then we crossed the road and looked over. The man was on the floor with blood. "He had a lightweight jacket on, dark trousers and a shirt. "He was running through those gates, towards Parliament, and the police were chasing him." Her partner David Turner added: "There was a stampede of people running out. "You saw the people and you thought 'what the hell is going on'." LONDON TERROR ATTACK LIVE UPDATES

Westminster terror attack in pictures Thu, March 22, 2018 These devastating photographs capture the carnage and terror in the Westminster terror attack in London one year ago today. Play slideshow PA 1 of 43 Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood (centre) helps emergency services attend to a police officer outside the Palace of Westminster, London

Watching the incident unfold from the press gallery inside the Houses of Parliament, George Eaton the political editor of the New Statesman told Sky News: "I saw a large crowd fleeing the attacker who appeared to be carrying a knife, fleeing him from close to the Tube station. "He then entered the gates of Parliament and charged at officers. We now know that one of them was sadly stabbed. He was then very swiftly shot by armed police." Kathy Casatelli, 58, saw a car rammed into the front gates of the palace and a man being treated on the floor. She said: "We were coming up from the Tube and we walked out and there were officers there with their guns drawn. She said: ”I saw this car that was smashed into the gate. It was a grey BMW, it looked like a nice car. The whole windshield was smashed. "There was a man on the ground, it looked like he was moving. I don't know if he was the driver." Police extended the cordon back up Broad Sanctuary beyond Westminster Abbey to the junction with Victoria Street. After the incident, 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's Centre for European Studies, wrote: "A car on Westminster Bridge has just mowed down at least five people." At least four people were seen lying on the ground, some bleeding heavily and apparently unconscious, on Westminster Bridge near Britain's parliament on Wednesday, Reuters photographs showed. One of the photographs showed a body lying under the wheels of a London bus. An assailant was shot outside parliament by armed police, the leader of the House of Commons said after loud bangs were heard with at least a dozen injured people on the nearby bridge.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "I can see people injured on Westminster bridge. There are a lot of ambulances. I was coming down the escalators with loads of other people and police suddenly stopped us all. There was no way back up and it was a bottleneck. It was very scary. “Everyone was panicking but the solidarity shown was inspiring. We're not sure if it was one or two attackers, or if it was the bloke in the 4x4 who attacked everyone on the bridge. I heard gunshots, but that was the police taking down the attacker.” Witness Quentin Letts said he saw a man in black attack a police officer outside Parliament before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the House of Commons. "I saw a thick-set man in black clothes come through the gates into New Palace Yard, just below Big Ben," he told the BBC. "He had something in his hand, it looked like a stick of some sort, and he was challenged by a couple of policemen in yellow jackets. "And one of the yellow-jacketed policemen fell down and we could see the man in black moving his arm in a way that suggested he was stabbing or striking the yellow-jacketed policeman."

PA Parliament shooting: Witness reveals knifeman ran towards Parliament

PA Scotland Yard are treating the incident as a terror attack

The other officer ran to get help and the man in black ran about 15 yards towards the entrance. Mr Letts said: "As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plain-clothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell." 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.

EPA Shocked witnesses said they saw bodies lying on the ground on Westminster Bridge near Parliament

"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." Steve Voake, 55, was walking across the Westminster Bridge towards the South Bank when he saw the aftermath. He said he saw at least two bodies lying on the road and one in the water. "I saw a trainer lying in the road and when I looked more closely I saw that there were a couple of bodies the other side of the road," he told the Press Association. "And when I looked over the side there was another body lying in the water with blood all around it." Westminster underground station has been closed and pedestrians moved away from the scene. One witness told Express.co.uk: "There's no tubes, no taxis, and people can't even walk anywhere because the police are moving people further and further away. It's chaos." In the Commons, MP John Pugh says MPs are being evacuated from the building. Helicopters are circling overheard as officers at the scene say they are unable to confirm how long the cordon will be in place. Police have cordoned off the Mall to cars with officers seen in Trafalgar Square.

EXPRESS The attacker struck on Westminster Bridge