The European Union has expressed solidarity with Britain following an attack near the British Parliament which left four people dead.
The President of the EU Parliament Antonio Tajani expressed solidarity with the victims of Wednesday’s attack in the center of the UK capital on behalf of the European Parliament.
The UK Green Party also thanked emergency services for their hard work.
The party also thanked everybody, who has expressed concern about member of the parliament and co-leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas, who was in the House of Commons when the attacks occurred.
Earlier on Wednesday, a car attack and a shooting incident occurred in the borough of Westminster in London, leaving four people, including a London police officer and the alleged assailant, killed and at least 20 injured.
London Metropolitan police said they were treating the events as terrorist acts.
Police believe that a single attacker could be responsible for ploughing into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and then stabbing a police officer at an adjacent gate to the parliamentary compound, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
The stabbed officer and his attacker, who was shot by other officers, are among the four dead, said Rowley, who is also Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer.
“The attack today injured a number of members of the public, including three police officers protecting parliament,” he said.
The London Ambulance Service said paramedics had treated at least 10 seriously injured people on Westminster Bridge.
One woman was reportedly rescued from the Thames, the river that runs under the bridge.
“We have sent a number of resources to the scene including ambulance crews, London’s air ambulance and our hazardous area response team,” Pauline Cranmer of the London Ambulance Service said.
The leader of the Commons, the lower house of parliament, said he had suspended business and ordered a lockdown after a “serious incident” in which a police officer was stabbed and reports of other violent incidents.
In an another indication that the two incidents were linked, Sky News sports reporter Alan Parry said he saw the driver run away after the car collision, followed by the sound of gunfire.
“The driver sprinted away from the scene,” Parry said. “That was followed by four what sounded very much like gunshots.”
“Then all of a sudden all hell was let loose and police descended everywhere. The whole area was locked down.”
Another witness told Sky News that she saw a middle-aged man armed with a long knife, running towards the gate to parliament and then getting shot.
Tourist Jayne Wilkinson was with a group taking photographs of the parliament when they “saw all the people running towards us.”
“There was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches (20 centimetres) long,” Wilkinson told the broadcaster.
“And then there were three shots fired, and then we crossed the road and looked over. The man was on the floor with blood,” she said.
“He was running through those gates, towards parliament, and the police were chasing him.”
