Incident happened near parliament house

London, Mar 22 (AFP): At least three people were killed and 20 injured in a “terrorist”?attack in the heart of London on Wednesday.

A man mowed down pedestrians on a bridge, then stabbed a police officer outside parliament before being shot dead. Those dead included the police officer and the attacker, authorities said.

Police guarding the House of Commons building shot the man, but several people were left with ‘catastrophic’ injuries on Westminster Bridge, a busy traffic junction popular with tourists with views of Big Ben.

The car crashed into the railings outside the heavily guarded parliament building and witnesses described a man leaping out of the vehicle into the grounds of parliament and stabbing a police officer.

The incident comes with Europe on high alert after a series of deadly jihadist attacks and exactly a year after terrorists killed 32 people in a bomb attack in Brussels.

The parliament building was immediately sealed off and MPs and staff ordered to remain inside. “We are treating this as a terrorist incident,”?police said in a statement.

David Lidington, the British minister responsible for arranging government business, told MPs, “It seems that a police officer has been stabbed, that the alleged assailant was shot by armed police.”

Prime Minister Theresa May is safe, her Downing Street office said, and was preparing to chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee. She was seen being driven away from parliament.

Police cordoned off a large area in Westminster and tourists on the London Eye, a popular tourist attraction, were stuck 135 metres (443 feet) in the air for around an hour during the incident.

The underground station at Westminster was also closed. At least 10 patients were treated on Westminster Bridge and several hospitals were on alert.

US President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the incident, describing it as ‘big news’, and French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed condolences.

Pulled out of Thames

A seriously injured woman was recovered from the Thames, having jumped or fallen from the bridge. “A female member of the public was recovered alive from the water, but with serious injuries,”?said spokesman Martin Garside.