Two people are believed to have died and a dozen injured in a suspected terror attack outside Parliament this afternoon.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Emergency services close to the Palace of Westminster. PICTURE: Yui Mok/PA WireEmergency services close to the Palace of Westminster. PICTURE: Yui Mok/PA Wire (Image: Press Association)

Scotland Yard was called to a firearms incident on Westminster Bridge amid reports of several people injured at 2.40pm.

The attacker is reported to have mowed down several pedestrians as he drove a grey Hyundai car across Westminster Bridge before crashing it into railings.

He is then reported to have run through the gates of the Palace of Westminster and stabbed a police officer.

Commons leader David Lidington told MPs earlier there had been a “serious incident within the estate”.

Barking and Dagenham Post:

“It seems that a police officer has been stabbed, that the alleged assailant was shot by armed police,” he said.

“An air ambulance is currently attending the scene to remove the casualties. There are also reports of further violent incidents in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster but I hope colleagues on all sides will appreciate that it’d be wrong of me to go into further details until we have confirmation from the police and from the House security authorities about what is going on.”

MP for Dagenham & Rainham Jon Cruddas was in the Commons when he heard the commotion.

“We were on the way to vote and heard what we assume were three or four shots close by and we ran back to our office area,” he told the Post.

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“We are now all in Portcullis House – a major security lockdown is underway.”

Witness told Don Brind he heard shots being fired and saw two people apparently injured on the ground.

Mr Brind, a researcher for MPs, said: “I heard some shouting and saw some running out of the corner of my eye and then a short time after that there was a shot. I looked and I saw a civilian on the ground, with somebody standing over him with what I assumed to be a gun.

“Then I looked and about 10 yards away, there was a yellow jacketed person on the ground, who appeared to be alive and talking.”

He said he assumed the person in the high-visibility jacket was a police officer.

More to follow.