London crash being treated as 'terrorist incident': police

The man allegedly behind the wheel of a car which crashed into pedestrians and cyclists in London has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism, police have confirmed.

Two people were taken to local hospitals after the car crashed near the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, but authorities said the injuries aren’t believed to be life-threatening.

Armed police swooped into the area after the incident was reported at 7.37 am local time, arresting the car driver and cordoning off streets surrounding the heart of Britain’s government.

The nearby Westminster subway station was closed, with police asking people to stay away from the area.

“At this stage, we are treating this as a terrorist incident and the (Metropolitan Police) Counter Terrorism Command is now leading the investigation,” Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

A man in his 20s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of terrorist offences and taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody, police said.

Images from Sky News and social media showed a man in a puffy black jacket who was surrounded by officers before being handcuffed and led away from a silver Ford Fiesta.

There was nobody else in the vehicle, which remains at the scene and is being searched, police said.

Eyewitnesses said the car was traveling at high speed when it hit several pedestrians and cyclists, then crashed into barriers outside the Houses of Parliament.

“The car drove at speed into the barriers outside the House of Lords. There was a loud bang from the collision and a bit of smoke,” Ewelina Ochab told The Associated Press.

“The driver did not get out. The guards started screaming to people to move away.”

The same area was the site of a terror attack in March 2017, when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people.

Masood abandoned his car and then stabbed and killed a police officer before being shot dead in a courtyard outside Parliament.

Less than three months later, a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men abandoned the vehicle and attacked weekend revellers in the nearby Borough Market.

Eight people were killed and 48 injured in the attack.

On June 19, 2017, a man drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque in north London, killing one man and injuring eight others.

With Associated Press