Immediately before the incident, at around 14:45 a crowd of passers-by was seen running from the direction of Westminster Bridge and around the corner into Parliament Square.

Two people were seen lying within Old Palace Yard, immediately outside Westminster Hall. 

The sitting in the House of Commons has been suspended while police officers sealed off the area around the incident.

Katy Searle of BBC Westminster says: "Police are clearing MPs and members of the public back from the entrance of Portcullis House.

"A police offcer has told Laura Keunssberg, the BBC's political editor, someone has been shot in front of Portcullis House."

Sounds similar to gunfire have been heard close to the Palace of Westminster. A man with a knife has been seen within the confines of the Palace, eyewitnesses said.

News Shopper

A fake door-to-door fundraiser is reportedly knocking on homes in the Bromley area claiming to be raising money for the animal charity hunting the M25 Cat Killer. , external

The organisers raised just £50,000 of their £900,000 target.

BBC Weather

Thickening cloud will bring some showery outbreaks of rain from the southwest during the afternoon. 

Some rain may locally turn heavy, with hail possible, especially over higher ground such as the Chilterns. It'll feel cold in brisk southeasterly winds. 

Maximum temperature: 9C (48F).

More than 1,000 new jobs are being created at the London Taxi Company's new site in Coventry.

The Londonist
Blog

Fish and chips. Quite the combination aren't they? But did you know that the heavenly pairing was first invented in London... probably.   , external

BBC Business News

With Theresa May expected to invoke Article 50 next week, kickstarting the process for the UK to leave the EU, BBC News asks if businesses are changing their strategies to cope with Brexit. 

London-based handbag designer Claudia Fürst has moved her manufacturing operation to Italy to counter the impact of the weak British pound.

Thames Water has been fined a record £20m after pumping nearly 1.5 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames.

The company admitted water pollution and other offences at sewage facilities in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Fish and birds died following the spills in 2013 and 2014.

Judge Francis Sheridan, at Aylesbury Crown Court, said the scale of the problem was such that it must have been known up the chain of command.

Some of London's most prolific offenders could be ordered to wear satellite tagging technology in a UK first.

Magistrates in eight London boroughs can now order the wearing of GPS tags as part of a community or suspended sentencing, meaning the offenders whereabouts are always known.

According to City Hall adult reoffending costs London £2.25 billion a year, accounting for 69% of the total criminal justice system spend. 

Overall reoffending rates for London stand at 24%, but London’s 4,000 most prolific offenders have predicted reoffending rates of around 82%.

The pilot, in the North and East London Local Justice Areas, aims to make between 75 and 100 prolific offenders subject to GPS tagging, with young adults and female offenders a priority. 

They will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and face a potential prison sentence if they breach the terms of their court order.

The hoax was made on 10 November 1999 at a fast food restaurant in Knightsbridge.

The Duchess of Cornwall helps top chefs and chief executives cook at a charity banquet in London.

Image source, Eddie Mulholland/Daily Telegraph/PA

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone has called for the suspension of "about a dozen" Labour MPs who he claimed are "consciously undermining" leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

Mr Livingstone, a close Corbyn ally who is himself currently suspended from the party over allegedly anti-Semitic statements, named Streatham MP Chuka Umunna and (Ilford North) Wes Streeting among the MPs he said were damaging Labour.

And he called for the reintroduction of automatic reselection of MPs, reviving the prospect that figures from the centrist wing of the party could be removed by grassroots Corbyn supporters. 

Mr Livingstone's intervention comes amid bitter infighting over Labour's future, with deputy leader Tom Watson and Unite general secretary Len McCluskey engaged in a war of words over an alleged plot by the Corbyn-backing Momentum group to bolster the position of the hard-left by securing financial support from the union.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live days after Mr Corbyn issued a plea for party unity, Mr Livingstone called for the removal of "disloyal" MPs.

"Those that have been most over the top I think should be suspended," the former mayor told interviewer Emma Barnett.

"I think the other thing that Jeremy should do is re-introduce automatic re-selection. It's really ridiculous that MPs in safe seats have a job for life.

"I'm particularly talking about Chuka Umunna, Wes Streeting - basically it's the same group of MPs who were screaming that I'd said Hitler was a Zionist and I was anti-Semitic."

Image source, PA