A New Zealander has described seeing police running past with automatic weapons while he was waiting to visit at the Houses of Parliament during a London's terrorist attack.
Police cordon off the area near Parliament in London where the assailant attacked a police officer and pedestrians. Photo: AFP
Five people, including the attacker, are dead and at least 40 are injured after a man in a car ran down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed a police officer.
The attacker was shot dead by the police.
Wellingtonian Craig Spanhake was visiting Parliament as a tourist and was waiting to go into the House of Lords when the incident happened.
He said at first he did not realise they were in lockdown.
"There wasn't actually any announcement, I could see the police officers were getting quite agitated," he said.
"I could see them running around and talking on their walkie talkies."
He and others were kept in the lobbies between the Houses of Commons and the House of Lords and could not see what was happening outside.
"We saw a few waves of police go through with their automatic weapons and they told us they would be getting us out of there as soon as they could," he said
Everyone waiting with him was quiet and patient and kept up with what was happening on their smartphones, he said.
They were eventually let out just after 8pm (UK time).