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POLICE OFFICER STABBED AND MANY WOUNDED IN APPARENT TERROR ATTACK NEAR UK PARLIAMENT

[3/23/17]  Four people are dead and at least 20 are injured after a terrorist attack in central London on Wednesday afternoon.

A lone assailant mowed down dozens of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in a 4X4 car before killing a police officer with a knife in the grounds of Parliament just after 2.30 p.m. local time. He was shot dead by police outside Parliament gates.

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley confirmed that two others died on Westminster Bridge, while a further 20 were injured there.

Rowley told reporters that police believe there was only one attacker, but stressed it would be “foolish” to rule out the possibility of more. He advised the public to be vigilant and confirmed additional officers will patrol the capital Wednesday night and Thursday.

Journalist Quentin Letts gave an account of what he saw to MSNBC.

“I saw a fairly thick-set man wearing black clothes running through the open gates, the security gates where people drive their cars,” Letts said. “He seemed to have something in his hand, maybe a knife, maybe a stick.”

Letts continued: “He started beating a policeman who had fallen over on the ground. The policeman managed to shake him off and the attacker then ran towards the entrance of the House of Commons, which is used by our members of Parliament and he got about 15 yards before the authorities responded.”

Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood attempted to give mouth-to-mouth to the stabbed police officer before he died.

“Three or four gunshots” were heard, according to the BBC.

Aside from the two dead, others are suffering from “catastrophic injuries” after a car mowed down pedestrians on a packed Westminster Bridge no more than a few hundred metres from the Houses of Parliament.

At least 10 people have been treated for injuries on the bridge, the London Ambulance Service said in a statement.

Three of the injured are French students, according to French media.

The BBC’s Andrew Neil is reporting that the car that mowed down people on Westminster Bridge was the same vehicle that crashed into the gates of Parliament.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they were called to an incident on the bridge at about 2:40 p.m. GMT (10:40 a.m. ET).

The police are also concerned about a different vehicle that is parked on Westminster Bridge.

The police are asking people to avoid Parliament Square, Whitehall, Westminster Bridge, and Lambeth Bridge as police officers and emergency services respond to the incident.

“Officers — including firearms officers — remain on the scene and we are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

No terrorist group has accepted responsibility for the attack. New York Times terrorism correspondent Rukmini Callimachi noted on Twitter, however, that pro-ISIS channels on the chat app Telegram were talking about the attack.