“Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spenborough, was attacked and fatally wounded on Market Street”, temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins told a news conference.
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Police have arrested a 52-year-old man in connection with an attack, the police statement said. Subsequently there was a further attack on a 77-year-old man nearby who has sustained injuries that are non-life threatening.
An eyewitness told Sky News that he saw a man in a baseball cap suddenly pull a gun from his bag.
BBC News reported witnesses said a man in a white baseball cap with an “old fashioned looking gun” shot Cox up to three times – once in the face.
North East politicians have offered their support after a Labour MP was “shot and stabbed” in her constituency.
HAMPSTEAD and Kilburn’s Tulip Siddiq has paid tribute to her fellow Labour MP and friend Jo Cox, who was shot and killed in West Yorkshire this afternoon (Thursday).
Attacks on British members of parliament are rare, although another Labour MP, Stephen Timms, was stabbed in London in 2010. Twenty-four hours before the assault, Cox had been on a boat in the River Thames with her husband and two young children campaigning for Britain to remain part of the union.
British Prime Minister David Cameron says he has cancelled a planned pro-European Union speech in Gibraltar.
Before being elected to Parliament a year ago, Cox was an aid worker and charity campaigner, The Financial Times reports.
Cox’s death was confirmed by police in the city of Wakefield.
Eyewitnesses Hithem Ben Abdallah said the lawmaker was lying bleeding on the pavement after the attack, which took place shortly after she held a meeting with some constituents.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was “utterly shocked”.
Cox died at the Leeds General Infirmary.
Conservative MP Sir Eric Pickles said he was “very shocked” and he is praying for her recovery.
A second person, a man, was also injured in the attack and is expected to survive, The Associated Press reports, citing West Yorkshire Police. “My thoughts are with her husband Brendan and the children today”. “Her poor family. My prayers are with them”.
“There is a large and significant crime scene and there is a large police presence in the area”.
At talks in Luxembourg Thursday, eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said ministers “observed a moment of silence in our meeting, out of respect for her”.
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Political aide Andrew Pennington was killed in January 2000 trying to protect MP Nigel Jones from a man with a samurai sword during a constituency surgery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
