Yahoo News Watch: Shocking footage shows moment car crashes into barriers at Houses of Parliament
This it the shocking moment a car ploughed into cyclists before crashing into security barriers at Westminster this morning.
The clip taken from a nearby rooftop shows a silver Ford Fiesta heading along the road next to Parliament Square in central London before making a sudden turn right towards Westminster Abbey.
The car crosses incoming traffic and mounts a pavement before speeding up and ploughing towards a group of people.
The car crashes into the barrier next to the Houses of Parliament, while a police officer can be seen jumping a barrier to safety.
Counter-terror police are now leading the investigation after the car crashed into ‘a number of’ cyclists and pedestrians at around 7.40am this morning.
Scotland Yard said the driver, a man in his twenties from the Midlands area, was arrested at the scene by armed officers on suspicion of terrorist offences.
Streets around Parliament Square, Millbank and Victoria Tower Gardens were cordoned off as dozens of armed police swooped on the scene.
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Officers could be seen surrounding the car before leading a man away in handcuffs.
Eyewitness Ewalina Ochab said: ‘I think it looked intentional – the car drove at speed and towards the barriers.’
She added: ‘I was walking on the other side [of the road]. I heard some noise and someone screamed.
‘I turned around and I saw a silver car driving very fast close to the railings, maybe even on the pavement.’
Cyclist James Maker, 30, of Chelmsford, Essex, passed the scene in Westminster within minutes of the crash to see a woman injured on the floor and the car crashed into the barrier.
He told the Press Association: ‘I looked to the right-hand side and there was a cyclist on the floor, clearly injured.
‘It was a woman, they were clearly quite injured, they weren’t moving and they were in the recovery position.’
Fellow cyclists were helping her, he said, adding: ‘There were a couple of cyclists who had clearly been involved who were sitting on the floor and perhaps had minor injuries.
‘I must be honest, I’ve got a young son and a wife and my initial reaction was as long as paramedics were seeing to the woman, I wanted to get away from the incident.’
Two people were treated at the scene in Westminster for injuries that are not thought to be serious, London Ambulance Service said.
Scotland Yard added: ‘At this stage, officers do not believe that anybody is in a life-threatening condition.’
The Houses of Parliament are surrounded with security barriers of steel and concrete.
The measures were extended in the wake of the Westminster Bridge attack in March 2017 when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people.
Masood abandoned his car then stabbed and killed unarmed Police Constable Keith Palmer before he was shot by armed police in a courtyard outside Parliament.
British Transport Police (BTP) said it would be putting extra officers on patrols in England, Scotland and Wales on Tuesday afternoon and into the evening following the latest attack.
A meeting of the Government’s emergency cobra committee will be held at 2pm.
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