Portsmouth MP told to run by police as armed guards shot terrorist

CITY MP Penny Mordaunt has told how she had to to run for her life as a terrorist attacked the Houses of Parliament.
By The Newsroom
Published 22nd Mar 2017, 18:00 BST
Updated 24th Mar 2017, 11:11 BST
Picture: Yui Mok/PA WirePicture: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Ms Mordaunt was yards away from the knifeman, in New Palace Yard, when he stabbed a police officer and attempted to burst into the Commons.

Officers screamed at the government minister and other bystanders nearby to flee, as gunshots rang out across Westminster.

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The shaken MP darted across the yard and into a nearby tube station to escape the horror outside parliament.

Reliving the horrifying ordeal, the former armed forces minister told The News: ‘I could hear the gun shots and the police telling us to run.

‘I got out via an entrance that goes to the underground.

‘I was just running and trying to evacuate people to get them out.’

At least two people have been killed in the terror attack on the capital. Multiple other people have been injured.

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The attacker’s assault began on Westminster Bridge, where he mowed down several pedestrians before crashing it into railings.

He then fled the stricken vehicle and charged through the gates of the Palace of Westminster where he stabbed a police officer.

Eyewitnesses said he was shot by police as he approached a second officer clutching his knife.

He left a trail of destruction as paramedics tended to his victims on the bridge and at the gate.

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Prime Minister Theresa May was seen being ‘bundled away’ into a silver Jaguar in the grounds of the palace as what sounded like gunfire rang out at around 2.45pm.

A Downing Street source confirmed she was ‘OK’.

Ms Mordaunt is now being held in an undisclosed safe house in the capital as emergency services secure the area.

Eyewitness Rick Longley described the attack.

‘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.’