Westminister Palace, which houses the UK Parliament, has been the site of a stabbing/shooting incident which has led to an ongoing House of Commons sitting being suspended.

Reports indicate a man armed with a knife was seen in the premises of the Palace, but he was shot by other police officers after he stabbed one of them.

Several people sustained varying degrees of injuries in another incident outside the palace in which a car mowed down several people, the Metro reports.

The Metropolitan police in London shed some light on the incident on twitter, writing:

“We were called at approx 2.40pm to reports of an incident at £Westminster Bridge. Being treated as a firearms incident – police on scene”.

“What I am able to say to the House is there has been a serious incident within the estate.” said House of Commons leader David Lidington.

“It seems that a police officer has been stabbed, that the alleged assailant was shot by armed police.

“An air ambulance is currently attending the scene to remove the casualties.”

Lidington added: “There are also reports of further violent incidents in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster but I hope colleagues on all sides will appreciate that it’d be wrong of me to go into further details until we have confirmation from the police and from the House security authorities about what is going on.”

The entire area has currently been cordoned off as police look into the incidents.