A passer-by named as Maxim said: “They took the man from the car and put him on the ground and then 20 minutes later evacuated the street. There was a lot of police, I saw people running people were panicking.”
The Pakistani terrorist was pulled out and dragged from a car after he ploughed into the pedestrians.
Within minutes of the incident armed police had arrived at the scene amid fears of a terrorist attack and Downing Street said Prime Minister Theresa May was “being kept fully informed” of developments.
A spokesman for the museum said there had been a terrorist driving a vehicle colliding with pedestrians outside its entrance on Exhibition Road. British media reported a car had mounted the pavement outside the tourist attraction.
Pictures and footage from the scene showed street damage and a massive police presence in the capital’s museum district, home to the NHM, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
It is believed that a number of pedestrians have been injured. Officers are on scene, and the London Ambulance Service have been called.
The area is a magnet for tourists, including lots of children.
Paramedics are treating people outside the London museum.
Armed police have also entered South Kensington tube station.
The museum has tweeted: “There’s been a serious incident outside the Museum. We are working w/ @metpoliceuk and will provide an update when we have more information.”
People at the scene warned of heavy traffic in the area, with Cromwell Road closed in both directions.
In the United States three Muslims living outside the U.S. planned to attack concerts, Times Square and crowded subways in 2016 in an ISIS-inspired attack that one of the suspects said he hoped would be “the next 9/11,” authorities announced on Friday afternoon.
Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a 19-year-old Canadian citizen; Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen based in Pakistan; and Russell Salic, a 37-year-old orthopedic surgeon in the Phillipines — used Muslim chat apps to talk about bringing a car bomb into the Crossroads of the World, gunning down subway riders before detonating vests and opening fire on concertgoers in New York.
“NY Needs to fall. This is a must,” Haroon allegedly wrote in a message to an undercover agent posing as an ISIS sympathizer.
