A man has reportedly doused himself with petrol outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London with British police rushing to the scene.
Emergency services were on the scene shortly before 11am BST on Tuesday, as Conservative MP Huw Merriman tweeted that a man he was standing next to outside Parliament’s carriage gates had “poured (what smells like) petrol on himself.”
The MP for Bexhill and Battle said that police responded bravely to the incident and were helping the individual.
Another eyewitness claimed that the man doused himself in petrol from a two-litre Coke bottle before being pinned down by police officers while others ran for a fire extinguisher, according to the Mirror.
The paper also reports that armed officers guarding the Palace of Westminster rushed to the scene, in addition to the London Fire Brigade who arrived to help clean up the spilt petrol.
Richard Davey, a 67-year-old from Enfield, told the Mirror that the man, who he thought was was wearing “a red anorak” threw “some A4 or A5 sheets in the air. Then all of a sudden he's pouring petrol over himself. And then the police said 'run' so we ran."
Police have closed part of Parliament Square.
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