North Wales politicians have paid tribute to Labour MP Jo Cox who died after she was shot and stabbed in an attack near Leeds.
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Nearby, a 77-year-old man was attacked, suffering non-life-threatening injuries.
West Yorkshire Police said they had arrested a 52-year-old man named locally as Tommy Mair in connection with Mrs Cox’s death.
The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded under his vehicle at his home in southern England in 1990.
Clwyd South AM Ken Skates said: “Shocked and devastated by the murder of Jo Cox MP, killed whilst doing her job helping people”.
Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP Gill Furniss said: “A brutal, tragic loss for us all, and more importantly to her family”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted he was “very concerned about reports Jo Cox has been injured”.
“Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people”, Brendan Cox, said in a statement Thursday after her death was announced by police.
Gabrielle Giffords, the Jewish congresswoman who survived a 2011 Arizona assassination attempt, joined Jewish leaders in condemning the murder of British lawmaker Jo Cox.
Jo Cox became Labour MP for Batley and Spen at last year’s General Election.
The rival sides in the referendum on Britain and the European Union have been canvassing feverishly ahead of what is expected to be a close vote.
Eyewitnesses said he kicked and stabbed her and then shot her several times, the final shot aimed at her head. “A great campaigning MP with huge compassion and a big heart”. “He fired a first shot then I ran away and then heard a second shot”. She’s gone to work to do a job she cares about and now she’s not coming home to them. “My thoughts are with her husband Breddan and her two young children”, he wrote.
A University of Cambridge graduate, she was the Oxfam aid agency’s policy chief before entering parliament and a prominent campaigner for refugee rights. The broadcaster says a man has been arrested and police are not looking for any other suspects.
“I saw someone on the ground between two cars”, he said.
British MPs, who are now not in parliament ahead of next week’s referendum on whether Britain should remain in the European Union, have reacted with horror.
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There was a similar message from fellow Labour MP Justin Madders of Ellesmere Port and Neston who again was elected to Parliament at the same time as Mrs Cox. “Our thoughts and sympathies are with Jo and her family at this hard time”.
