LONDON -- A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage in the heart of London, plowing a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament. Five people were killed, including the assailant, and 40 others were injured in what Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a "sick and depraved terrorist attack."
Lawmakers, staff members and visitors were locked down after the man was shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament grounds, just yards from entrances to the building and in the shadow of the Big Ben clock tower. The attacker died, as did the police officer and three pedestrians on the bridge.
A doctor who treated the wounded from the bridge said some had "catastrophic" injuries. Three police officers, several French teenagers on a school trip, two Romanians and five South Koreans were among the casualties.
London's Metropolitan Police Service said its "working assumption" is that the attacker was "inspired by international terrorism." There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said police believed there was only one attacker, but that "it would be foolish to be overconfident early on." He said an unarmed policeman, three civilians and the attacker died. Forty others, including the three police officers, were injured.
"This is a day that we planned for but hoped would never happen. Sadly, it has now become a reality," Rowley said outside Scotland Yard's headquarters.
Islamic extremism was suspected in the attack, Rowley said, adding that authorities believe they know the assailant's identity but would not reveal it while the investigation was ongoing.
The threat level for international terrorism in the U.K. was already listed at severe, meaning an attack was "highly likely."
Speaking outside No. 10 Downing St. after leading a meeting of the government's emergency committee, May said that level would not change. She said attempts to defeat British values of democracy and freedom through terrorism would fail.
"The location of this attack was no accident," May said Wednesday evening. "The terrorist chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech."
But she said that "any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure. Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal," she said. Londoners and visitors "will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart."
President Donald Trump was among world leaders offering condolences, speaking with May by telephone and applauding "the quick response of British police and first responders," spokesman Sean Spicer said.
In Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were to be dimmed in solidarity with London.
Wednesday was the anniversary of suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and in a city subway that killed 32 people last year, and the latest events echoed recent vehicle attacks in Berlin and Nice, France.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was in "close contact with our British counterparts to monitor the tragic events and to support the ongoing investigation." It noted that U.S. security threat levels were unchanged.
Parliament lockdown
The attack occurred on Parliament's busiest day of the week, when the prime minister appears for her weekly questions session and the House of Commons is packed with visitors.
The attack began early Wednesday afternoon as a driver in a gray SUV slammed into pedestrians on the bridge linking the Parliament building to the south bank of the River Thames.
Former Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski was in a car crossing the bridge when he heard "something like a car hitting metal sheet" and then saw people lying on the pavement.
"I saw one person who gave no signs of life. One man was bleeding from his head. I saw five people who were at least seriously injured," Sikorski told Poland's TVN24.
Ambulances arrived within minutes to treat people who lay scattered along the length of the bridge. One bloodied woman lay surrounded by a scattering of postcards.
Police said one injured woman was pulled from the river.
The car crashed into railings on the north side of the bridge, less than 200 yards from the entrance to Parliament. As people scattered in panic, witnesses saw a man holding a knife run toward the building.
"The whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben," said witness Rick Longley. "A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that. I just can't believe what I just saw."
The attacker managed to get past a gate into Parliament's fenced-in New Palace Yard, a cobbled courtyard.
Daily Mail journalist Quentin Letts said a man in black attacked the police officer before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the building.
"As this attacker was running towards the entrance, two plain-clothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell," Letts told the BBC.
The attacker fell to the cobbles just yards from the entrance to 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the parliamentary complex, busy with visitors and school groups. Beyond that, a corridor leads to the building's Central Lobby, flanked by House of Commons and House of Lords chambers.
In the House of Commons, legislators were holding a series of votes on pensions when deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that the sitting was being suspended and told lawmakers not to leave.
Parliament was locked down for several hours, and the adjoining Westminster subway station was shuttered.
The prime minister was among the officials near the House of Commons at the time of the attack, and she was quickly ushered away by security officers and driven back to Downing Street.
Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in a Bali terror attack in 2002, performed first aid on the wounded police officer who later died. About 10 yards away lay the assailant.
"I tried to stem the flow of blood and give mouth to mouth while waiting for the medics to arrive, but I think he had lost too much blood," Ellwood said. "He had multiple wounds, under the arm and in the back."
To get that far, the attacker would have had to evade the armed officers who patrol the Parliament complex in pairs, as well as Parliament's own security staff members, who don't carry guns.
The attack unfolded near some of the city's most famous tourist sites, including the London Eye, a large Ferris wheel with pods that overlook the capital. It was halted after the attack, stranding visitors in the pods with an aerial view of the attack scene.
Charles Thompson, a 21-year-old chef from Canada, wondered whether there would be more attacks. "Usually its a chain-reaction thing," he said.
His friend Enrique Cooper, a 32-year-old officer manager originally from Italy, said he would not let the day's violence change his view of London. "I'm here all the time," he said. "You can't let something like this ruin your perspective."
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Lawless, Paisley Dodds, Danica Kirka, Sophie Berman, Gregory Katz, Rob Harris and Lori Hinnant of The Associated Press and by Karla Adam, Rick Noack, Griff Witte, Adam Taylor, Isaac Stanley-Becker, James McAuley, Brian Murphy, William Branigin and Mark Berman of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/23/2017