but stand by for a moment. phil black is also getting some information. what are you learning, phil? reporter: wolf, where i m standing there is just across the road from britain s houses of parliament, that iconic building. it is now currently surrounded under absolute lockdown in what is a very large and new police operation. police around here are still in the process of driving people back from the scene. they ve established lines. there are vehicles, police motorcycles, heavily armed police officers. all of them have locked down this area. if you re familiar with it, we re talking about houses of parliament, the area around parliament square. police are moving people back down, a road known as whitehall, the historic road that runs through this city s government area. we re just a short distance from downing street, the prime minister s residence. this is the location where according to police, only a short time ago, they responded to what they are subscribing as
entrance to the building. and what i m now told by my colleagues is that there is a person down and injured, just where the mps would have been walking. have you been told that you have to be in lockdown, you and your colleagues and associates inside parparliament? is that right? reporter: that s right. you have an area of the building where the journalists were, they re locked up there. we ve been i m in a newer part of the building, people from academics to students, advisers and officials have been herded into the meeting rooms to get away from the glass, some feeling people could still be at risk within the building.
you heard those women say they saw bodies lying all around. on the phone right now is da dal babou, former chief superintendent of the metropolitan police in london, he was in charge of security for that area. what can you tell us based on what you re hearing? good afternoon. i think it s very, very early at this stage to know exactly what s happened. i think the assumption is, given where the attacks happened, that this is a terrorist incident. at the moment i think the information is very unclear. i think what we ve been cold is an officer has been stabbed, that officers have shot the individual. i think it s an incredibly challenging area to police and keep safe, because the house of commons and house of lords have multiple entry and exit points for lords and members of
thank you, jamie. good to see you as well. jamie: this is a travel alert, not a travel warning. tell me what the difference is and what you recommend americans in europe or going to europe do. well, what we ve got is a threat that has been based on credible evidence but not a specific threat. and they re the state department is not advising people to cancel travel plans but remain alert. when you go in large areas like the big ben area, trafalgar square or where people would congregate, pay attention to your surroundings. know where an exit would be. know where you can move to safely. in a large area like say an airport or a train or bus station, if you can stand near columns or some sort of structural support in the event something happens in the building, you know, if the roof were to come down or whatever else, you have a pocket there as you stand next to the support structure. so, but it s really paying
scenes coming to me from the political reporters down there. how unusual is it, a full lockdown of parliament and the area around london? to me it sounds extraordinary. reporter: it is unusual. but in this heightened sense of alert, this is how they will react. when i say it hasn t officially been heightened, but i know they are looking at sort of potential targets around london more closely than they have been in years gone by. any sort of incidents would have this sort of reaction. we haven t had any sort of dents on whatever level recently. it s been cleared and the police are doing what they can. if they weren t that concerned, they would have cleared it by now, because we re heading into rush hour, another reason we re concerned. we re looking at a picture, max, of a car that looks like it crashed into the fence around parliament right there. i don t know if you have any more information.