Four dead and over 40 injured in London attack

Cii Radio| Ayesha Ismail| 23 March 2017| 24 Jumadul Aakhir 1438

Four people were killed, including the assailant, and about 40 others were injured in what Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a “sick and depraved” attack outside the UK parliament building.

At least four people were killed and 40 others were injured after an assailant ploughed his car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge then leapt out and stabbed a policeman outside the parliament building on Wednesday, officials said.

The assailant was shot dead by police as the parliament building was put on lockdown.

London Police said that officers were called to an incident on Westminster Bridge near to where witnesses said a vehicle struck several people; photos of the crime scene showed a car that ploughed into railings.

The injured included three French schoolchildren, authorities in France confirmed.

London Metropolitan Police said in a statement that they were treating the situation as a “terrorist incident” until they know otherwise.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who was at parliament when the incident began, condemned the attack as “sick and depraved.”

“The location of this attack was no accident,” she said in a statement outside her Downing Street office late in the evening.

The former Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who was on the bridge, posted a video on Twitter that showed people lying injured.

Sikorski, a senior fellow at the Harvard Centre for European Studies, says he saw at least five people lying on the ground after being “mown down” by a car.

The threat level for international terrorism in the UK was listed at severe. The city was also on alert for the Thursday funeral of Martin McGuinness, former IRA commander.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which happened on the first anniversary of the Daesh suicide bombings in the Brussels airport and subway that killed 32 people.

The scene unfolded within clear sight of the London Eye, a large Ferris wheel with viewing pods with views of the capital. Footage showed the pods full as viewers watched police and medical crews on the bridge.

Source – trt world

Pic Credit – bbc.com