Westminster Houses of Parliament suspended after intruder shot by armed police

The UK Parliament at Westminster has been suspended after an intruder was shot by armed police.

Details remain unclear, but several witnesses reported seeing a man try to attack policemen before being shot.

There are also reports of people being injured after a car ploughed into passers-by on Westminster Bridge.

Leader of the Commons David Lidington confirmed an attacker had been shot by police.

Holyrood's sister site Politics Home's editor Kevin Schofield was in Parliament at the time. 

"We just heard a very loud bang outside the office here in the press gallery in parliament here and looked out the window there was lots of shouting, men running around then I looked to my left and there was a part of someone rushed through [the gates], attacked a policeman the policemen went down," he said. 

"Another policeman came to his rescue then the man who had assaulted him got up, he appeared to be carrying after a knife or a gun… and then we heard gunfire - lots of gunfire - maybe five or six rounds and then it got really quite panicky after that, as you can imagine." 

The deputy speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, suspended Parliament following the incident.

The leader of the House of Commons, David Lidington, gave a short statement to MPs.

"The alleged assailant was shot by armed police. An ambulance is currently attending the scheme to remove the casualties there are also reports of further violent incidents in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster but I hope colleagues from all sides wold appreciate it would be wrong of me to go through all the details until we have confirmation from the police and from the house security as to what is going on. 

"I shall endeavour to do the very best I can both at the despatch box and by communicating with my opposite numbers in other political parties to ensure members are kept aware of what is happening. But at the moment the very clear advice from the police and the director of security in the House is that we should remain under suspension and that the chamber should remain in lockdown until we receive advice that it is safe to go back to normal procedures." 

Broadcaster Alan Parry, who was on Westminster Bridge at the time of the incident, told Sky News he heard an “almighty crash” and saw a 4x4 crash into the railings and hit somebody. 

He added that the driver “suddenly sprinted away from the scene” and soon heard “what sounded like gunshots”.