Florida State University says all its students in London are safe, following a possible terrorist attack Wednesday. WFSU News spoke with one student working in the Parliament building about what she experienced.
Florida State junior Olivia Gilmore is interning in Parliament for the spring semester with FSU’s London Study Centre program. She had just returned from lunch when the attack happened.
“We heard like a crash, me and my colleague," Gilmore said. "And we heard a lot of screaming happening, and we were like “what is happening? Like, what is going on?” So we went to look out our window because it overlooks right there. I’m actually looking at the car right now. There was an SUV crashed into the gate. And there was just like people all around it screaming and there was someone on the ground bleeding earlier. I believe they were taken to the hospital.”
Twenty people have been reportedly injured. Four people were killed, one of whom was a police officer.
"And then we saw a man, he had a weapon, it looked like a knife from far away," Gilmore said. "But it might not have been. He was inside the gate, not inside the building but there’s like a gate around the Palace of Westminster building. He inside of it. He was running around chasing police officers."
The next thing Gilmore heard was gunshots, so she and her colleague got on the ground. They found others, and locked themselves in her office, staying away from windows. They then heard they were under lockdown. Then came the ambulances and police cars.
"Yea, they’re still currently cleaning up everything. We’re still on lockdown at the moment, it’s like 5 something right now..."
Gilmore was released from lockdown at around 7:45pm. Police have identified one man as a suspect. The investigation is still ongoing.