#London was plunged into Chaos on Wednesday afternoon when three people were killed and 20 injured in a terrorist attack right outside the #British Parliament.

The country's seat of power was #shut down as Westminster Bridge was left with pedestrians maimed and injured after a driver careened into passing afternoon crowds. It is unclear if the driver was the same man who stabbed a police officer right outside the entrance of the British Parliament and killed him. A man believed to have been an assailant died after being shot by #British police operatives.

Theresa May dramatically evacuated

Chaos and confusion reigned as the roads nearby were shut down, along with Westminster tube station. This, as the British prime minister #Theresa May was dramatically evacuated only a few hundred feet from the violence in a car, surrounded by nine heavily armed undercover policemen.

A minister in the Foreign Office and Member of Parliament, #Tobias Ellwood, was captured by journalists around the world trying to save the life of a stabbed police officer and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but the officer died.

Amidst the turbulence, ambulances, emergency vehicles and armed security military and police officers swarmed outside #Parliament, as traffic was halted and businesses closed down.

The #terrorist attack took place around 2.40 p.m Greenwich mean time, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley declared at a packed news conference. “This is the day we have planned for but we hoped would never happen,” Mr. Rowley told the news conference. “Sadly, it’s now a reality.”

A year to the day after the Brussels attacks

The assault occurred on the anniversary of the #Brussels suicide bombings that killed 32 civilians, along with the three bombers.

The driver of the large vehicle that mowed down the pedestrians on Westminster Bridge seemed to mimic other terrorist attacks in recent months in places such as Nice, France where many were injured and killed by the driver of a truck at a Bastille Day celebration.

Until today, #London has been spared the horrific violence that other European cities have dealt with the last ten years, but this attack has raised fears that the city will now join Paris, Brussels and Berlin as #terrorist targets.

The aftermath and the planning

Mrs May talked to President Trump on Wednesday, and was booked in for a crisis-response meeting with her Cabinet on Wednesday night.

A comprehensive #counterterrorism investigation is currently underway, and police and officials are pleading with the public to avoid a large section of central London and to report any suspicious behavior or other incidences.

Commander Harrington of the #Metropolitan Police said that the police had recorded “a number of casualties, including police officers,” but could not confirm an exact figure. The acting police commissioner, Craig Mackey, was right at the scene of the violence and is “being treated as a significant witness.”

Among the casualties were some foreign students from France, and a woman who fell down into the River Thames.