London - US TV viewers watched in horror as Westminster and Parliment attacked

This afternoon UK time a car crossing Westminster Bridge in downtown London reportedly accelerated into a crowd of tourists and others on the bridge in an apparent planned attack, causing serious injuries and at least one death. French authorities have already released the information that some French students were among the injured. The terrorist then attempted to enter the Parliament building and was shot after stabbing a policeman.

The incident is being classified as a terrorist attack.

What we in the US saw.

Most of the images from the scene of the attack were obviously shot from a helicopter and showed what appeared to be bodies on Westminster Bridge as well as many police, medical personnel, and ambulances. Rerun scenes from a few minutes earlier showed injured being evacuated on stretchers (gurneys).

MPs speaking by phone from inside the locked down Parliament building told reporters that Prime Minister Theresa May had been in the building at the time shots were apparently heard and her security team quickly moved her from the area, possibly to Number 10, but that hasn’t been confirmed.

President Trump in Washington, according to his spokesperson Shan Spicer, had spoken with PM May and assured her that the US would provide any assistance necessary in the wake of the attack.

As of now, (6:30 p.m. GMT) the area around Parliament and Westminster Bridge is still under lockdown and a woman has just recently been pulled from the Thames alive but reportedly seriously injured.

What Londoners saw.

A number of witnesses in London told reporters that they had been on the bridge and saw a half dozen or more bodies but did not know how badly injured they were. They also reported that police and medical personnel arrived quickly and began setting up a perimeter which they then proceeded to push back several times until a large area around the Parliament building was cleared.

Since today was the regular question time for the Prime Minister the House was crowded and other than PM May the members were all held in lockdown in the Parliament building for several hours until they were escorted out twenty at a time.

A medical evacuation helicopter was seen sitting in the park behind Parliament but was not being used to evacuate any injured - It appears that several hospitals are in the immediate vicinity.

One witness, the former Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told CNN that he had been walking across the bridge for a meeting in Parliament when the attack occurred and further that if he had been on the other side of the road he might well have been among those injured by the speeding car. He posted the following tweet with a video he made at the scene on Westminster Bridge.