WORKING here, you can always tell when something of grave consequence is happening.

The Northern Echo newsroom becomes hushed. One person starts watching the 24- hour news screen in the office while others listen, as they type away at their work.

Then a few more gather around.

For a few moments yesterday, more and more of us got up from our desks and perched on another, closer desk, to get a better look at the screen, trying to work out if this incident on Westminster Bridge was 24-hour news hysteria or a major terrorist attack.

It was clear quickly that this was a significant incident. MPs began tweeting that they were in lockdown in the Houses of Parliament.

I texted a political correspondent friend who was locked in Portcullis House.

She said she’d heard gunshots very close by (in fact the shots were right outside) and then police and security had locked down the entire building. She said felt like she was “in the middle of it”. It must have been terrifying not knowing what was going on.

But the response from the emergency services, and from the MPs themselves, was incredible. This very moment was the moment we’d all been fearing for years, the moment the police and security services had prepared for. It was London’s turn.

At the time of writing this, four people had died as a result of the incident, and at least 20 have been injured.

That is four people too many to be killed at the hands of suspected terrorists. But thank god, it was not more. In other European cities, 137 died in Paris, 35 in the Brussels suicide bombings a year ago to the day.

Eighty-six lost their lives in the Nice truck attacks, and 11 in Berlin in the Christmas market attacks.

That does not take away any of the sheer tragedy, the wasted lives, of the dead. It is more a testament to the incredible work of the emergency services and of the Metropolitan Police.

Fortunately, they were in the area at the time on a training exercise, and were immediately on the scene, while command sent legions more as back-up.

People described the incredible bravery of the officers – tragically, one lost his life.

As panicked pedestrians fled the scene, they were met by courageous police officers sprinting towards it.

Within Westminster and Portcullis House, officers kept the locked-in politicians, journalists, and support staff calm as they waited to clear each area, checking and doublechecking every room to ensure it was safe.

Outside, after a police officer was fatally injured, Conservative MP and former soldier Tobias Ellwood tried frantically to save his life, administering CPR and mouth-tomouth, staying with him to the end. Ellwood’s brother was reportedly killed in the Bali bombings in 2012, so yesterday’s incident must have brought back painful memories.

But what struck me about the attacks yesterday was the solidarity, the pulling together.

Immediately we were one. A meme of a tube sign, “We are not afraid”, emblazoned across the front, was shared across social media within the hour.

Terrorists would do well to remember: London, and other British cities, once survived the Blitz. You don’t scare us.