23 Mar 2017

School children injured in London attack

12:04 pm on 23 March 2017

Three French school children were among those injured when a vehicle hit people on London's Westminster Bridge in a suspected terror attack, the French government has confirmed.

Members of the emergency services work to help victms on Westminster Bridge.

Members of the emergency services work to help victims on Westminster Bridge. Photo: AFP

The foreign ministry said they had been on a school trip to London.

A newspaper in France's Brittany region, Le Telegramme, identified them as teenage pupils from a private high school in Concarneau.

At least two of the pupils are in a critical condition, French media said.

Witnesses quoted by Le Telegramme said one pupil had ended up on the car bonnet.

Those of the group not injured were extremely traumatised, the BBC's Nick Robinson said, after meeting them just after the attack.

Parents have begun gathering at the school, the Lycee Saint-Joseph.

Five people, including a police officer and a man believed to be the attacker, were killed and a total of 40 injured in Wednesday's attack near the UK's Houses of Parliament, Scotland Yard confirmed.

The car that hit pedestrians crashed into railings.

The French school group, aged 15-16, were walking across the bridge when they were hit by the car, Le Telegramme said (in French).

One of them told him he had seen the car drive into the group.

Pupils who were not hurt were put on a boat for security, after which they were able to return to the youth hostel where they had been staying since Sunday evening, Le Telegramme reports.

The hostel was trying to get them back to France as soon as possible, the paper adds.

- BBC