James Corden opened The Late Late Show Wednesday by honoring the victims of the London terror attack. Five people were killed and 40 were injured after a car and knife attack outside U.K. Parliament. The incident occurred at about 2:40 p.m. local time, when the car hit dozens of pedestrians before crashing into the gate outside the Palace of Westminster during Prime Minister's Questions time. The attacker got out and fatally stabbed police officer Keith Palmer before being shot dead by guards. NBC News confirmed overnight that at least eight people have been arrested in connection to the attack. Scotland Yard is calling the incident terrorism.
Corden was taping Wednesday's episode as the investigation was in its early stages.
"There was a terror attack today in my hometown, the city of London in Westminster. While we're filming this, it's still unknown what the motives were," Corden told viewers. "What we do know at this point is that people have lost their lives and many, many more have been injured. I know a lot of people in Britain watch this show—there's a lot of people from Britain who work on this show—and of course, our thoughts go out to everyone who's been affected by this."
The news hit the host especially hard, as he was saw the events unfold from thousands of miles away. "Watching the news today, I felt a really long, long way from home," said Corden, who now lives in L.A. "It's funny: When something like that happens in your hometown, you don't have a feeling of being glad that you're so far away. What you feel is that you wish you could be there with loved ones to stand alongside them. London is a diverse and proud and brilliant city, and one thing is for sure: If this act of terrorism was supposed to divide the people of London, I know for a fact that all something like this does is bring them closer together as one."
"Tonight we send our heartfelt thoughts to everybody in Britain. Stay safe everybody, please."
Many other celebrities from the U.K.—including Lily Allen, Sam Claflin, Cara Delevingne, Niall Horan, Leona Lewis and Lisa Vanderpump—shared their messages of support via social media.