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A firearms incident was reported at London's Westminster Bridge, near the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police said today.

A WITNESS of the Westminster attack has described the terror as she saw a knifeman running towards Parliament as three shots were fired in the London attack.

- Car mowed down up to a dozen people on Westminster Bridge - just outside the Palace of Westminster
- Police officer stabbed by knife-wielding attacker
- The attacker was shot by armed police
- Houses of Parliament on lockdown
- Met Police treating incident as terror attack
- Theresa May was in the division lobby when she was whisked away by plain clothes policeman in a car
- Eyewitnesses said bodies were scattered on the ground on Westminster Bridge near Parliament.

Scotland Yard said the attack is being treated ''as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise''.

One witness said she saw an Asian man carrying an eight-inch knife heading towards the building.

Jayne Wilkinson said: ''We were taking photos of Big Ben and we saw all the people running towards us, and then there was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches long.

''And then there were three shots fired, and then we crossed the road and looked over. The man was on the floor with blood.

"He had a lightweight jacket on, dark trousers and a shirt.

"He was running through those gates, towards Parliament, and the police were chasing him."

Her partner David Turner added: "There was a stampede of people running out.

"You saw the people and you thought 'what the hell is going on'."

Watching the incident unfold from the press gallery inside the Houses of Parliament, George Eaton the political editor of the New Statesman told Sky News: "I saw a large crowd fleeing the attacker who appeared to be carrying a knife, fleeing him from close to the Tube station.

"He then entered the gates of Parliament and charged at officers. We now know that one of them was sadly stabbed. He was then very swiftly shot by armed police."

Kathy Casatelli, 58, saw a car rammed into the front gates of the palace and a man being treated on the floor.

She said: "We were coming up from the Tube and we walked out and there were officers there with their guns drawn.

She said: ”I saw this car that was smashed into the gate. It was a grey BMW, it looked like a nice car. The whole windshield was smashed.

"There was a man on the ground, it looked like he was moving. I don't know if he was the driver."

Police extended the cordon back up Broad Sanctuary beyond Westminster Abbey to the junction with Victoria Street.

After the incident, Radoslaw Sikorski posted a video to Twitter purporting to show people lying injured in the road on Westminster Bridge.

Mr Sikorski, a senior fellow at Harvard's Centre for European Studies, wrote: "A car on Westminster Bridge has just mowed down at least five people."

At least four people were seen lying on the ground, some bleeding heavily and apparently unconscious, on Westminster Bridge near Britain's parliament on Wednesday, Reuters photographs showed.

One of the photographs showed a body lying under the wheels of a London bus.

An assailant was shot outside parliament by armed police, the leader of the House of Commons said after loud bangs were heard with at least a dozen injured people on the nearby bridge.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "I can see people injured on Westminster bridge. There are a lot of ambulances. I was coming down the escalators with loads of other people and police suddenly stopped us all. There was no way back up and it was a bottleneck. It was very scary.

“Everyone was panicking but the solidarity shown was inspiring. We're not sure if it was one or two attackers, or if it was the bloke in the 4x4 who attacked everyone on the bridge. I heard gunshots, but that was the police taking down the attacker.”

Witness Quentin Letts said he saw a man in black attack a police officer outside Parliament before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the House of Commons.

"I saw a thick-set man in black clothes come through the gates into New Palace Yard, just below Big Ben," he told the BBC.

"He had something in his hand, it looked like a stick of some sort, and he was challenged by a couple of policemen in yellow jackets.

"And one of the yellow-jacketed policemen fell down and we could see the man in black moving his arm in a way that suggested he was stabbing or striking the yellow-jacketed policeman."

He other officer ran to get help and the man in black ran about 15 yards towards the entrance.

Mr Letts said: "As this attacker was running towards the entrance two plain-clothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell."

Kevin Schofield, the editor of PoliticsHome.com heard "a very loud bang" from the press gallery inside the Houses of Parliament followed by lots of shouting and men running around.

He initially thought it was a car crash but then he looked outside the window to a heavily-guarded area outside which is out of bounds to the public.

He told Sky News: "Someone rushed through, attacked a policeman, a policeman went down, another policeman came and he was rescued.

"The man who had assaulted him got up and he appeared to be carrying either a knife or a gun. Then we heard gunfire, lots of gunfire, maybe five or six rounds.

"All I remember seeing is the man approaching the police officer probably with a knife and then there was gunfire.

"He was walking towards a second policeman with his arm outstretched, with what looked like a knife in his hand, having already assaulted another policeman.

"It was at that moment that you realised that something serious was happening - a man had broken in to Parliament and had a weapon."

Steve Voake, 55, was walking across the Westminster Bridge towards the South Bank when he saw the aftermath.

He said he saw at least two bodies lying on the road and one in the water.

"I saw a trainer lying in the road and when I looked more closely I saw that there were a couple of bodies the other side of the road," he told the Press Association.

"And when I looked over the side there was another body lying in the water with blood all around it."

Westminster underground station has been closed and pedestrians moved away from the scene.

One witness told Express.co.uk: "There's no tubes, no taxis, and people can't even walk anywhere because the police are moving people further and further away. It's chaos."

In the Commons, MP John Pugh says MPs are being evacuated from the building.

Helicopters are circling overheard as officers at the scene say they are unable to confirm how long the cordon will be in place.

Police have cordoned off the Mall to cars with officers seen in Trafalgar Square.

Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “Police are asking people to avoid the following areas: Parliament Square; Whitehall; Westminster Bridge; Lambeth Bridge; Victoria Street up to the junction with Broadway and the Victoria Embankment up to Embankment tube.

“This is to allow the emergency services to deal with the ongoing incident.

“Police were called at approximately 14:40 hours to reports of an incident in Westminster Bridge, SW1. It is being treated as a firearms incident.

“Officers - including firearms officers - remain on the scene and we are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise.

“We thank the public for their assistance.

“Police are appealing for any members of the public who may have images or footage of the incident to send them to this address: www.ukpoliceimageappeal.co.uk.”

The FBI is actively investigating Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible cooperation from President Donald Trump's campaign, agency director James Comey confirmed.

The existence of an investigation isn't a surprise, but Comey's announcement Monday is the first time the FBI has acknowledged an active case. The FBI typically does not comment on active investigations, but the Russian actions targeting the U.S. election represents an "unusual" case, he told members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

Comey told lawmakers he couldn't comment more on the investigation, but he said the FBI is looking into possible contacts and cooperation between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The FBI is looking into "the nature of any links" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, he said.

U.S. intelligence agencies are confident that Russia directed hacks into the Democratic National Committee and campaign officials for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Leaked emails were released by WikiLeaks and other websites during the 2016 campaign.

During the hearing, Comey also shot down Trump claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in New York City during the presidential campaign. The FBI and the Department of Justice have "no information that supports those tweets" by Trump in early March, Comey said.

"We have looked carefully inside the FBI" for evidence of an Obama wiretapping campaign against Trump and found nothing, Comey added.

Meanwhile, the intelligence community remains confident the Russians coordinated the election hacking campaign, Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, told lawmakers Monday. The Russian government has repeatedly denied interfering in the presidential campaign.

But Rogers and Comey were silent on the question about whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to damage Clinton's campaign. Republicans noted there is no evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government, but Democratic members of the committee tried to connect the dots.

In an extraordinary 17-minute statement, Representative Adam Schiff laid out a timeline of meetings between members of the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election season.

Carter Page, a former national security advisor for Trump, visited Moscow in mid-2016 and reportedly discussed moving the campaign in a pro-Russia direction, Schiff said. Trump campaign officials also met with Russian officials during the Republican National Convention.

Later, Michael Flynn, former national security advisor for Trump, and Jeff Sessions, Trump's attorney general, denied contact with Russian officials before they were outed in the press, Schiff said. And Trump campaign operative Roger Stone had contact with WikiLeaks and supposed DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0, Schiff said.

"Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence?" Schiff said. "Yes, it is possible, but is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected, and not unrelated."

The dictator observed the ''high-thrust'' engine being tested at Tongchang-ri rocket launch station today.

It follows the shock launch of multiple missiles towards US bases in Japan earlier this month.

Watching today’s test, Kim declared a 'new birth' for North Korea's rockets.

And the ''Dear Leader'' warned the world it would soon witness the Hermit Kingdom's ''great victory''.

The engine will help the country achieve world-class ''satellite'' launch capability, state news agency KCNA said.

This indicates it was a new type of rocket engine for long-range missiles.

Space rockets have a similar design to intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The UN believes North Korea is using its so-called space programme to design a missile capable of hitting the US.

Trigger-happy leader Kim has boasted the country is close to a test-launch of an ICBM.

KCNA (which the Communist regime's official propaganda mouthpiece) said, "He (Kim) noted that the success made in the current test marked a great event of historic significance as it declared a new birth of the 'Juche-based' rocket industry."

The term ''Juche'' refers to North Korea's homegrown ideology, or unique way of thought.

The news agency added, ''He emphasised that the whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries.''

Kim gave the order for the launch and watched from an observation tower as the engine fired up.

The test was conducted to check various technical parts of the engine, such as the thrust power in its combustion chamber, the accurate movement of its turbine pump, its control system and various valves and their structural safety and reliability.

North Korea declared the test a success.

Kim hailed the country’s weapons industry for a ''series of unprecedented successes''.

The despot said the test was a great leap forward for North Korea's rocket industry – matching the space programme of other countries.

He declared the ''historic'' launch day would now be known as the ''March 18 revolution''.

The high-thrust engine was developed by Kim’s scientists at the Academy of the National Defence Science.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches and is believed by experts and government officials to be working to develop nuclear-warhead missiles that can reach the US.

The US and China have pledged to work together to get the North to take ''a different course'' and move away from its weapons programmes.

US president Donald Trump's new right hand man Rex Tillerson met with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

But The Donald later blamed China for failing to rein in pal Kim.

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump made more than $150 million in income in 2005 and paid $38 million in income taxes that year.

The acknowledgement came shortly before MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reported on two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax forms on her Tuesday night show.

The records were obtained by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who said he received the documented unsolicited, in the mail.

The documents have become highly sought-after because Trump refused to release his returns during the campaign, breaking a decades-long tradition. He claimed he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service and said his attorneys had advised against it — though experts and IRS officials said such audits don’t bar taxpayers from releasing their returns.

The White House pushed back pre-emptively Tuesday night, saying that publishing those returns would be illegal.

“You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” the White House said in a statement.

The unauthorized release or publishing of federal tax returns is a criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to five years in jail. But Maddow argued that MSNBC was exercising its First Amendment right to publish information in the public interest.

Based on the documents obtained by Johnston, Trump paid $36.5 million in taxes on $153 million in income, for an effective tax rate of around 24 percent. That percentage is higher than the roughly 10 percent the average American pays each year — but below the 27.4 percent that taxpayers earning 1 million dollars a year average, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Trump’s tax returns spotlight the role of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was established nearly five decades ago to prevent the wealthy from using deductions and clever accounting to largely avoid paying taxes.

The AMT is a separate gauge of tax liability that, according to critics, has ensnared more middle-class people than intended, raising what they owe the federal government each year. It requires many taxpayers to calculate their taxes twice — once under the rules for regular income tax and then again under AMT — and then pay the higher amount.

Though opponents of the AMT have focused on the growing number of upper-middle-class earners who pay the tax, Trump’s 2005 disclosure shows it prevented him from avoiding most of the taxes he paid in 2005. If not for the AMT, Trump’s effective tax rate would have been just 3.5 percent.

Trump, according to his campaign website, has said he wanted to eliminate the tax, which is expected to bring in more than $350 billion in revenues from 2016 to 2025.

Trump long insisted the American public wasn’t interested in his returns and said little could be learned from them. But Trump’s full returns would contain key details about things like his charitable giving, his income sources, the type of deductions he claimed, how much he earned from his assets and what strategies Trump used to reduce his tax bill.

The issue was a major point of attack from his election rival Hillary Clinton, who suggested Trump had something to hide.

The White House has not said whether or not the president plans to release his returns while he’s in office. More than 1 million people have signed a White House petition urging the president to release them.

Nigerian government forces in the northeastern state of Borno have rescued 211 civilians from the Boko Haram group, the army authorities said on Sunday.

Troops of 22 Brigade Garrison, Operation Lafiya Dole, rescued the victims during an operation in Cingal Murye and Maja villages on Saturday, Xinhua quoted army spokesman Sani Usman as saying.

One the terrorist was neutralised, 11 bicycles were recovered from the fleeing terrorists, he added, noting that security team also escorted two heavy-duty trucks and 18 pickup vans to recover Internally Displaced Persons' food stuff from Mala Maja.

The Boko Haram insurgency has been blamed for more than 20,000 deaths and displacement of 2.3 million people since 2009.

Nigeria has made a considerable gain on the Boko Haram front, with its security forces operating in the restive region dislodging the Boko Haram fighters from the Sambisa Forest, the group's largest training camp in the country, last December.

Islamic State (IS) terrorists are completely "trapped" and "the last road out of Mosul" has been cut off, claimed a US envoy Sunday in Baghdad.

"Just last night, the 9th Iraqi army division, up near Badush, just northwest of Mosul, cut off the last road out of Mosul," Xinhua quoted US envoy to the anti-IS coalition Brett McGurk as saying.

Meanwhile, Iraqi government forces have expelled IS fighters from about 30 per cent of western Mosul, a senior official from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service(CTS) said on Sunday, a major progress in the massive operation to retake the second largest city of Iraq.

The official said that CTS soldiers clashed fiercely with IS members in the old city centre in western Mosul, stressing that the enemy's power has been greatly weakened in the battle.

Iraqi government forces launched the offensive to liberate western Mosul on February 19 after declaring the full control of eastern Mosul late January.

McGurk also announced that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will visit Washington next week to hold discussions with US President Donald Trump on the further cooperation between two countries.

Gunmen disguised as medical personnel stormed a military hospital near the US Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people in a six-hour siege before Afghan security forces killed the attackers, authorities said.

The ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq said the terror group claimed responsibility for the attack near Kabul's heavily fortified diplomatic quarter.

First, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the south gate to the Sardar Mohammed Daud Khan hospital, said Sediq Sediqqi, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman. Known as "the 400-bed hospital," it's the country's biggest and best-equipped medical facility.

Three gunmen then invaded the hospital, made their way to the second and third floors and opened fire, Sediqqi said. Among those killed were Afghan military personnel recovering from battle wounds, doctors and hospital employees.

Security forces and police mounted a counteroffensive. Heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles surrounded the facility, a helicopter landed on the roof and a few patients climbed out of windows and stood on a ledge to escape the violence, video shows.

Soldiers killed the attackers about 3:30 p.m. local time (6 a.m. Wednesday ET) after six hours of fighting.

As soldiers cleared the building, they discovered bodies and the number of casualties quickly grew.

More than 50 people were wounded and taken to the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, said Smael Kawosi, media relation officer for the Ministry of Health. It's not known whether any security personnel or police officers were killed.

The Taliban has claimed credit for other recent attacks. But a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mojahid, denied responsibility for this rampage in a tweet, saying: "Today's attack on hospital in Kabul has nothing to do with the Mujahidin of Islamic Emirate," using the group's formal name.

In the vacuum of a Taliban claim, Amaq said ISIS claimed responsibility. Though it is credible that ISIS planned and carried out the attack, CNN has not independently verified the claim.

This is not the first attack at the hospital named after Afghanistan's first president. In May 2011, suicide bombers got inside, and killed six people and injured 26 others. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Witnesses told CNN an explosion was first heard at 9 a.m. local time (11.30 p.m. Tuesday ET).

Afghan National Police special forces rushed in. "At first there was a firing followed by a huge blast," an employee at a nearby hospital said.

An employee at an Italian restaurant nearby said she heard one explosion, then heard gunfire about 25 minutes later.
The attackers were not immediately killed because security forces were busy evacuating patients, the defense ministry statement said.

US Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support and US Forces in Afghanistan, said the attack "is an unspeakable crime." He praised security forces for the swift response, saying the forces deserve "our highest praise and respect."

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said the attack shows terrorists "don't follow rules and laws."

"According to international humanitarian laws, hospitals are immune from attacks," he said.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted: "I condemn the terrorist attacked on hospital in Kabul. While we work for peace, we'll avenge the blood of our people."

The US Embassy in Kabul said, "Targeting a medical facility providing care for the brave Afghans working to protect their fellow citizens has no possible justification in any religion or creed."

NATO forces in Afghanistan indicated that the organization was standing by to assist Afghan security forces, according to tweets from Operation Resolute Support.

"Once again insurgents show complete disrespect for humanity by attacking a hospital. We stand with Afghan people against terrorism."

Somalia's prime minister announced Saturday that 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in a single region as a severe drought threatens millions of people across the country.

It was the first death toll announced by Somalia's government since it declared the drought a national disaster on Tuesday. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in this Horn of Africa nation need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.

Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire spoke during a meeting with the Somali National Drought Committee. The death toll he announced is from the Bay region in the southwest part of the country alone.

Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the U.N. secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. All are connected by a thread of violent conflict, the U.N. chief said.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, was expected to visit Somalia in the next few days.

Thousands have been streaming into Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies. Over 7,000 internally displaced people checked into one feeding center recently.

The drought is the first crisis for Somalia's newly elected Somali-American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by extremist group al-Shabab, have left the country fragile. Mohamed has appealed to the international community and Somalia's diaspora of 2 million people for help.

About 363,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia "need urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished," the U.S. Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network has warned.

Because of a lack of clean water in many areas, there is the additional threat of cholera and other diseases, U.N. experts say. Some deaths from cholera already have been reported.

The government has said the widespread hunger "makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks."

The U.N. humanitarian appeal for 2017 for Somalia is $864 million to provide assistance to 3.9 million people. But the U.N. World Food Program recently requested an additional $26 million plan to respond to the drought.