Armed soldiers spotted across London after Manchester attack

Britain took the unprecedented step of deploying hundreds of soldiers to patrol the streets of London today as the country woke up to a heightened terror threat following the Manchester suicide bombing.
Around 1,000 heavily-armed military personnel are guarding the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other UK landmarks after Theresa May warned that a fresh terror attack may be 'imminent'.
The extraordinary steps were taken as police in Manchester revealed suicide bomber Salman Abedi is believed to have been part of a terror 'network' and an off-duty woman police officer was among his 22 victims.
Soldiers in camouflage combat fatigues carrying the SA-80 rifles usually only fired in war zones patrolled beside Metropolitan Police officers through the streets of Whitehall this afternoon.
It is the first time such a step has been taken since Tony Blair sent tanks to guard Heathrow Airport in 2003 and will be the first time most Britons have ever witnessed uniformed troops on their streets.
Lines of soldiers filed into the Houses of Parliament today in the largest-scale deployment at the world-famous site since the Second World War.
It came as a raft of measures were taken to increase security, with the Palaces of Westminster in lockdown, the Changing of the Guard cancelled and even a victory parade by Chelsea FC called off.
Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Mancunian of Libyan descent, killed 22 people - including a girl aged just eight - and injured 119 more when he detonated an explosive device packed with nuts and bolts in the foyer of the Manchester Arena.
Twenty people remained in 'critical care' this morning, with some having suffered 'horrific injuries' including major organ damage and potential loss of limbs.
Soldiers are replacing armed police at many popular tourist spots as part of the Met Police's Operation Temperer, which will free up police officers to fight the terror threat.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: 'The military are here and a number of locations in London in order to allow us, the police, to put more armed officers on the streets to support the public, and to protect the public and to protect events.'
Ms Dick said there were 'clearly a number of unknowns' since the attack on Monday and security services needed to get 'a better understanding' of the situation before the threat level could be reduced.