POLICE IN LONDON are treating as terrorism the attack which left three people and an attacker dead at the British parliament.

The dead include a police officer tasked with guarding the Houses of Parliament. The police officer has been named as 48-year-old husband and father Keith Palmer.

Around another 40 people are injured.

The terror started this afternoon when a car mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before crashing into railings outside the Houses of Parliament, where a man leapt out with a knife and stabbed a police officer.

What we know

• Four people, including a police officer and a man believed to be the attacker, have died
• The attacker was shot by police within the gates of parliament after stabbing a policeman
• At least 20 people were injured on Westminster Bridge after a 4×4 drove at pedestrians
• The incident is being treated as terrorism
• The House of Commons chamber is locked down
• Prime Minister Theresa May is safe

In video shown on television reports, four gunshots are then heard.

“At least one man, armed with a knife, continued the attack and tried to enter parliament,” Britain’s top counter-terror official Mark Rowley told reporters.

Rowley said the four victims included the police officer and two people who died on the bridge.

“We are treating this as a terrorist incident,” police said in a statement.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley tonight confirmed that the attacker was known to police. Police, he said, suspect ‘Islamist-related terrorism’ is behind the attack.

Injured

At least 20 people were injured as the car mowed down pedestrians on the iconic bridge.

These included three police officers returning from a commendation ceremony. A woman was later taken alive from the River Thames having either been sent in by the impact or jumped in to avoid the 4×4.

Three French school children were also hurt, officials in Paris said.

A junior doctor quoted by local media said they were treating “catastrophic injuries”.

PM safe

Prime Minister Theresa May was sped away in a silver Jaguar by her security detail.

She said this evening that her thoughts are with those killed and injured.

“The thoughts of the PM and the government are with those killed and injured in this appalling incident, and with their families,” a spokesman said.

The parliament was suspended and locked down, but will sit as normal tomorrow. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “There’s a lot of people who feel very, very shaken up.”

May will tonight chair a high-level Cobra meeting as police say that a counter terrorism investigation gets underway.

Read: Live: Four people, including police officer, killed in London attack