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UK Parliament car crash a terror attack, police say

Two pedestrians were hurt Tuesday morning when a man crashed his car into security barriers outside Parliament in London.
Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
Police forensics officers work at the scene outside the Houses of Parliament in central London on August 14, 2018, where a car was driven into the barriers. (DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

LONDON — Police say they are lifting cordons that had sealed off much of London's Westminster government district after a car crashed into Parliament, injuring three people.

The Metropolitan Police force says cordons are being lifted apart from a stretch of road around the scene of Tuesday morning's crash.

A man in his 20s has been arrested. Police say they are investigating the incident as terrorism but have not determined the driver's motive. No one else was in the car with the suspect and no weapons were found with him. The suspect is not cooperating with the police.

Forensics officers in coveralls can be seen collecting evidence from the silver car, which plowed into pedestrians and cyclists before striking a barrier outside Parliament.

London Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Basu says no other suspects have been identified and there is no "intelligence" of further danger to London.

The incident, which took place at 7:37 a.m. local time (2:37 a.m. ET), led to a large police operation and took place close to the site of another terrorist attack in London last year. None of the pedestrians' injuries are life-threatening.

The Houses of Parliament are ringed by steel and concrete security barriers.

An unnamed eyewitness told British broadcaster the BBC the driver "drove at speed" toward the barriers and that his actions looked deliberate. The eyewitness said the car appeared to swerve into a pedestrian crossing before slamming into the barriers.

Although no motive was immediately identified in Tuesday's incident, Britain's capital has been subject to a series of terrorist attacks in recent years.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called a crash outside Britain's Parliament "another terrorist attack in London."

Trump tweeted: "These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength!"

In June 2017, seven people were killed and dozens injured when three men — eventually shot and killed by police — rammed pedestrians with a car at London Bridge and then went on a stabbing rampage at nearby Borough Market. The Islamic State militant group later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Also in June last year, a British man drove a van into Muslim worshippers near Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London. A man who had earlier collapsed near the scene died. Investigators concluded the attacker had developed an extremist hatred of Muslims.

Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds injured during a bombing attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in May 2017. The Islamic State group claimed the 22-year-old British perpetrator of Libyan descent as one of its own.

Three people — a police officer and two civilians — were killed and dozens wounded by a lone attacker near Britain's Parliament in London in March last year. The attacker was shot and killed by police. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility.

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