London terror attack eyewitness accounts - 'flying people like a football'

Eyewitnesses describe what they saw as an attack unfolded near the British parliament in central London.

GRAPHIC WARNING: The story below contains images that could upset some readers.

Harrowing eyewitness accounts of the London terror attack are emerging as people re-tell the horror of a man's act in smashing a SUV into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before crashing and then stabbing a police officer. 

Richard Tice was told a vehicle had driven along the bridge's footpath knocking people over, while Rick Longley saw a man "plunging" a knife into a police officer.

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"A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman," Longley said.

Tice said he had looked across to the west pavement of Westminster Bridge and saw people on the ground being tended to.

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A woman comes to the aid of a man injured in the London terror attack on Westminster Bridge.

"When I spoke to someone who had clearly been on the bridge at the time of the incident, they said a car had mounted the pavement ... and literally driven the whole way from south to north up the bridge knocking people over," Tice 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," eyewitness Rob Lyon said.

An injured woman is assisted after the terror attack on Westminster Bridge in London.

"I just saw people being hit by a car at speed, it was harrowing."

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Ismail Hassan said he had seen a first victim hit by a vehicle, then a few second later another person and then a third.

"Then that's the time it clicked, you know, something bad is going on."

A man who witnessed a car drive into pedestrians on a bridge near the British parliament, tells reporters what he saw.

He told the BBC he saw, "flying people like a football".

MailOnline journalist Quentin Letts saw the incident out of the window of an office in the House of Commons.

"We heard this sound like a car crash. Then we saw a thick set man in black clothes come through the gates where people would normally drive cars," Letts said.

Victims of the terror attack in central London are helped by police.

"This man had something in his hand. It looked like a stick or a stave, it was quite long. He was challenged by two policemen in yellow jackets at the gates.

"One of the policemen fell down. He seemed to be stabbed four or five times. The other policeman got away and ran to get help," Letts said.

"It was very, very quick to come. As this attacker was running toward the entrance used by MPs to go into the House of Commons, he made it about 15 yards. Then two plain clothes guys came out of Westminster Hall with guns.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.

"They shouted at him, uttered what sounded like a warning. Then they shot two to three times and he fell."

 A member of the British Lionhearts boxing team said he saw an attacker with two knives stab a police officer.

"Then shots rang out and the attacker fell to the floor," The Guardian reported.

Westminster Bridge was the scene of a terror attack in central London as a man drove an SUV into a crowd of pedestrians.

Boxing coach Tony Davis jumped over a fence and tried to revive the injured police officer.

Baylor Cook, 20, was on Westminster Bridge with his parents and sister when what he described as a "black SUV" drove onto the pavement and hit "four or five" people in front of him, The Telegraph reported.

"It had to have been going over 35 miles per hour - it was going really fast. It careered onto the pavement and hit a ton of people. It looked like it had just lost control but then they sped up and accelerated around the corner. 

"I think there was a barrier which it hit because we heard a loud bang."

Martin Evans was on a bus stuck in a traffic jam when he saw a man running with a "very large kitchen knife".

"He was running really fast and went straight past the guards at the gate," Evans said.

"I then saw him stab a police officer two or three times. His colleague then intervened and the officer managed to stagger away. I then heard two neat shots and the man went down."

 - Stuff

Source: London terror attack eyewitness accounts - 'flying people like a football'