How MPs reacted to the Westminster attack as it happened

On Wednesday afternoon a police officer was stabbed and killed by an assailant outside the British Houses of Parliament.

A car also ploughed into a crowd of people on Westminster bridge, killing one woman and injuring many. Three French teenagers on a school trip to London were also badly injured in the attack.

At present, five are confirmed dead and 40 people have been injured.

For live updates please see the Independent's live blog.

For many, the events unfolded over social media.

The case was the same for many MPs in the chamber.

MPs began to give an account of what they had seen:

MPs also started to let people know they were safe, and that their staff were too, for concerned constituents:

MPs also began to issue tributes to those affected by the attack:

They also began to thank the security forces for their protection:

MSP's began to tweet that they should suspend their debate given events in Westminster:

And eventually it was:

The same happened in the Welsh Assembly.

Some messages of defiance began to surface:

And it emerged that Bournemouth Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, gave mouth to mouth to the police officer injured in the attack:

While Brendan Cox, the husband of Jo Cox, the MP who was murdered in June of last year by a far-right extremist, said this:

For live updates, please see the Independent's live blog.

More: Westminster terror incident: What we know and what we don't know

Watch: London attack: What you need to know​