London terror attack: 'Terrifying, we all ran'

The bodies that lay scattered on Westminster Bridge, London, told the horrible and brutal truth.

Victims lay in pools of blood on the pavement or in the road. One person who had jumped out of the way of the speeding car, or had been hit so violently, ended up at the bottom of the stone steps that lead from the Embankment up to the bridge.

The body appeared lifeless and spread-eagled, a pool of blood gathering on the rain-soaked pavement. It didn't look like anything could help him.

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Another victim was fished out of the River Thames, severely injured but alive.

The photographs and video footage, much of it too shocking to publish, revealed the devastating aftermath of what had long been feared - a terrorist attack on the political centre of the UK.

At just after 4.40pm (SA time) yesterday the Palace of Westminster ("the Houses of Parliament") came under attack. At the time of going to press last night, four people had been confirmed dead, one of whom was the attacker.

The London Ambulance Service said it had treated at least 20 people on the bridge.

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Eyewitness accounts described how a grey car sped along Westminster Bridge, heading north towards Parliament Square.

Richard Tice told Sky News that he had seen between eight and 10 bodies lying on Westminster Bridge.

"The car drove along the pavement, knocking people over," said Tice.

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The car, a Hyundai i40 SUV, mowed down anyone in its way.

Radek Sikorski, Poland's former foreign minister and now a senior fellow at the Harvard Centre for European Studies, had been in a taxi being driven across the bridge.

He posted a video to Twitter showing people lying injured in the road.

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"I heard what I thought was just a collision and then I looked through the window of the taxi and saw 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."

The attacker's car then drove onto the pavement under the shadow of Big Ben and crashed into the iron railings that surround parliament. The driver, described as an Asian-looking man in his 40s, jumped out of the vehicle and began running down the road and around the corner to the gates of parliament, which allow entry and exit for the cars of VIPs.

The man was wielding what has been described variously as a large knife or a machete.

He then stabbed a police officer before being shot. Witnesses heard three to six shots.

The attacker had managed to get inside parliament's compound, maybe about 15m from the entrance gate, before being stopped.

The police were searching for an accomplice. It is believed two people were in the car.

Rick Longley told the Press Association that he saw the man stab the policeman.

Fighting back tears, Longley said: "We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out.

"They were just lying there and then the whole crowd surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.

"A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman.

"I have never seen anything like that. I just can't believe what I just saw."

Katie Marthini, who was on holiday and visiting Westminster, said: "We heard four shots. It was in the enclosure next to Big Ben. I was next to it. I didn't see what happened next. It's terrifying. We ran. Everyone was running."

Quentin Letts, the Daily Mail's parliamentary sketch writer, said he saw a man dressed in black attack a police officer outside parliament before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm the House of Commons.

"I saw a thickset 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 loked like a stick, and he was challenged by a couple of policemen in yellow jackets.

"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."

The other officer ran to get help and the man in black ran about 14m towards the entrance, he said.

"As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plain-clothes guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning. He ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell."

Parliament was suspended and Prime Minister Theresa May was bundled into a silver Jaguar and driven away.

An air ambulance helicopter landed in Parliament Square and paramedics rushed to treat the injured. Others were driven off in ambulances.

Three French pupils on a school trip were among those injured by the car, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

May was due to chair a meeting of the government's emergency security committee late last night. - © Daily Telegraph