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'A GUY STARTED PLUNGING A KNIFE INTO THE POLICEMAN'

Witnesses recall horrific terror attack scenes with one woman ‘flipped off bridge into the Thames’ as car ploughed through pedestrians

WITNESSES to the carnage on Westminster Bridge have told how one person was flipped over the edge and others were left with horrific head wounds.

Cops have now confirmed the incident is being treated as a "terrorist attack" amid reports the driver then stabbed a cop before being gunned down.

 Witnesses reported seeing victims with horrific head wounds at the scene of the incident
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Witnesses reported seeing victims with horrific head wounds at the scene of the incidentCredit: Reuters
 A witness told The Sun Online they saw a person flung into the Thames during the attack
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A witness told The Sun Online they saw a person flung into the Thames during the attackCredit: Getty Images

A witness told The Sun Online: "I was just walking up to Parliament just about to walk in the steps.

"I wasn't looking when it happened but I saw the aftermath. (The driver) just went on the pavement and trampled a lot of people.

"There was a woman at the top of the steps, her head was just pulsing with blood and bleeding out and there was another woman who flipped over the side of the bridge. Someone landed in the river somewhere.

"From what I could tell I think they got that person because I saw cops on a ferry. She was not in a good state and there were a load of bodies on the road."

The London Port Authority later confirmed a woman was pulled alive from the water.

"A female member of the public was retrieved from the river near Westminster Bridge with injuries and is receiving medical treatment," a spokesman for the authority said.

"There's lots of people with head wounds."

Rob Smith, who was running past Westminster when the drama unfolded, said: (The) grey Hyundai car came across the bridge then across the cycle lane, hit a man on a bike and drive into the wall gates.

"Police ran straight out and shot him. I think there was another person but I can't be sure."

He said that officers had been drawing their guns as they ran out.

Poland's former foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, says he was in a taxi leaving Westminster and was checking his email when he heard something like a car crash, "something like a car hitting metal sheet".

"I look up and I see that a person is lying on the pavement. I started my camera and I saw more people lying on the street and on the pavement," Sikorski said on Poland's TVN24.

"People started running up to them. I saw one person who gave no sign of life, another man was bleeding from his head.

"In all, I saw five people who were at least seriously injured," he said.

"The taxi driver immediately called the emergency number. I heard ambulances within two or three minutes, so the rescue action was really very quick. There is a hospital near there."

 Police boats scan the river amid reports of victims being flung, or jumping, into the water
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Police boats scan the river amid reports of victims being flung, or jumping, into the waterCredit: Getty Images

"It all happened so fast that there was no time to get scared," said Sikorski who posted his video on Twitter.

Eyewitness Rick Longley also described the attack to the Press Association.

"We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out.

"They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.

"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."

Jayne Wilkinson, also told the Press Association she had seen the drama unfold.

"We were taking photos of Big Ben and we saw all the people running towards us, and then there was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches long.

"And then there were three shots fired, and then we crossed the road and looked over. The man was on the floor with blood.

 Paramedics treat a victim of the attack on Westminster Bridge
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Paramedics treat a victim of the attack on Westminster BridgeCredit: AP:Associated Press

"He had a lightweight jacket on, dark trousers and a shirt. He was running through those gates, towards Parliament, and the police were chasing him."

Steve Voake, 55, was walking across the Westminster Bridge towards the South Bank when he saw the aftermath.

He said he saw at least two bodies lying on the road and one in the water.

"I saw a trainer lying in the road and when I looked more closely I saw that there were a couple of bodies the other side of the road," he told the Press Association.

"And when I looked over the side there was another body lying in the water with blood all around it."

 Forensic police officers work at the scene of the horrific attack
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Forensic police officers work at the scene of the horrific attackCredit: PA:Press Association

Eyewitness Rob Lyon, 34, from Rugby, who works in marketing, said: "I heard a wheel definitely hit a kerb and quite a large crunch noise, I looked up and saw a car clearly hitting people as it came towards me.

"A colleague I was with, I heard him shout but I just instinctively jumped off the pavement and I could see people getting hit.

"Then the car just carried on up the bridges and I just looked round me in shock. I just saw people being hit by a car at speed, it was harrowing. I just sort of went into shock mode.

 Witnesses said the car barrelled through pedestrians walking along the bridge
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Witnesses said the car barrelled through pedestrians walking along the bridgeCredit: PA:Press Association

"I just looked around me and couldn't really work out what had happened. I was numb it felt like I was in the middle of a Hollywood movie, you see these things but suddenly I was in the middle of it.

"My first thought is I wanted to tell my wife I was okay and my children. Then I wanted to check a lady I was near and I gave her coat as a pillow and waited with her.

"I called the emergency services I think I was one of the first to do so and waited with her. I couldn't see the driver. I saw it come up onto the kerb and then just drive straight.

 Cops have said they are treating it as a "terrorist attack" until they can confirm otherwise
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Cops have said they are treating it as a "terrorist attack" until they can confirm otherwiseCredit: PA:Press Association

"It was so quick it probably joined the pavement ten or 15 metres in front of me. I saw about five people injured around me, but I was aware of all the people I had walked passed who were previously having selfies with Big Ben.

"There was a big group of Chinese tourists and I hope they're all okay. I was about metre away from being hit myself."


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