A Bermondsey resident watched on in horror as a man stabbed a policeman to death during a terror attack.
A man was shot outside the Houses of Parliament after a car mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and a police officer was stabbed in the terrorist attack this afternoon.
Police say up to 20 people were injured during the attack and four people have died, including the attacker, a policeman, and a woman.
Patrick Daly, a parliamentary correspondent for three regional newspapers, was at his desk in the Westminster lobby at about 2.40pm today when he witnessed the shocking events unfold.
“I heard a bang and it came from where my desk is overlooking New Palace Yard,” the 29-year-old told the News.
“I went straight to the window and I could hear kind of screams of pain and at first I thought someone had been hurt in an industrial incident because there’s lots of work going on around here but then I saw people were just running down Westminster Bridge Road and they were fleeing like a stampede from Parliament Square.
“I saw a man and there were two policemen in bright yellow jackets guarding the car gate of Parliament. It was open at the time – I’m not sure why – and I saw a man seemed to be grabbing one of the policemen.
We've been told to stay away from the windows due to the shouting – my office looks out in New Palace Yard where the shooting happened.
— Patrick Daly (@bypatrickdaly) March 22, 2017
“That’s when the violence started and he was really pushing and shoving the policeman.
“The attacker got past the policeman into the yard and he was only about five metres in when the policeman was knocked to the floor and this man had something in his hand, I couldn’t see what, and he made lunging movements towards the policeman at least three or four times.
“I looked away for a second and when I looked back again to see if anyone was helping him that’s when I saw lots of police run from the Parliament building itself and at this point all I could hear were these shouts coming from the police towards the attacker.
“Then a man dressed all in black who seemed to be an armed policeman carrying a black handgun shot the attacker two or three times. The man crumbled and all I know after the shots were fired is that there were two men lying not very far from each other in the Palace Yard.
“It’s very hard when things are happening so fast to comprehend what you are seeing so I kept telling myself ‘someone is injured, someone is injured’.”
Patrick said journalists working in the Houses of Parliament are used to it being on high alert – but that today served as a reminder as to why.
“This building is constantly on high alert but because we have a pass and get in with relative ease you forget that people in this building are targets and days like today you remember why we have armed police everywhere,” he said.
Both the House of Commons and House of Lords will sit as normal tomorrow.