Metropolitan Police say that several pedestrians were injured when a vehicle hit barriers outside London’s Parliament around 8 am local time on Monday. The driver was arrested at the scene.
The authorities have not stated whether the incident was terrorism-related or not, though it is being reported that Scotland Yard’s counter-terror unit is contributing to the investigation. A police spokeswoman said that they are “still trying to piece it together,” according to Reuters.
In a statement, posted on their Twitter feed, the London Ambulance Service wrote: “We have treated two people at the scene for injuries that are not believed to be serious and have taken to a hospital.”
None of the victims is in a life-threatening condition, police believe.
Parliament Square was shut down, according to British media, and a large number of police cars descended on the site. Westminster tube station has been closed.
Witness Jason Williams told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the ramming incident “seemed to be deliberate.”
“I don’t know if it was a tip-off, a warning, that this was like a bomb… There seems to be maybe about 200 police here now, and it’s all happened very quickly in the space of like half an hour,” the witness said.
Since the Westminster Bridge attack last year, the Houses of Parliament have been surrounded by steel security barriers. In March 2017 Khalid Masood rammed crowds along Westminster Bridge, killing four people. The attacker then abandoned his car outside parliament, where he stabbed and killed PC Keith Palmer before being shot by armed police.
