Two Arab News columnists recall Parliament building lockdown

Arab News columnists Chris Doyle and Muddassar Ahmed were among hundreds trapped inside the Parliament building in London during the suspected terror attack.
Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), was inside the building’s central lobby Wednesday afternoon when the attack took place. He said the building was on lockdown and there were “several hundred” people inside.
Officials annou-nced that there was a suspect vehicle outside Parliament that was being dealt with by bomb-squad units, Doyle said.
“It’s calm now but there was panic earlier,” he told Arab News at 4 p.m. local time, adding that a mass of people were trapped inside the building. “Armed police are everywhere milling among politicians, the public and schoolchildren.”
He tweeted from his handle @Doylech: “Bottles of water passed around by Parliamentary staff. People seated on the floor. Indescribable feeling of shock. People still scared. But seems police in control.”
In other tweets, he wrote: “Those in the dining room in Commons with us hid under tables. Terrified people as police were shouting to get out and go to Central Lobby. Coincidental or deliberate but the attack took place at around time of Division in Parliament. First vote of the week.”
Ahmed, managing partner at Unitas Communications Ltd., said he too was on lockdown inside the Parliament building on Wednesday afternoon.
He was visiting an MP’s office in the building. After the alert was raised they were asked to evacuate the office, but then told to return. Police were carrying out “a door-to-door search” of the building, Ahmed told Arab News.
He said he was feeling “shaken” after about an hour on lockdown, with armed police still moving through the building. “Missed the Westminster attack by minutes,” he wrote on his Twitter handle @unitascomms.