LEIGH-ON-SEA, (England): A British lawmaker was stabbed to death in a church on Friday by an assailant who lunged at him during a meeting with voters from his constituency, a killing police are investigating as a possible terrorist attack.

David Amess, 69, from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, was knifed repeatedly in the attack at about midday in the Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, east of London.

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A 25-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder, and detectives said specialist counter-terrorism officers from London police were leading their initial investigation. Politicians described the attack as an assault on democracy.

"David was a man who believed passionately in this country and in its future and we have lost today a fine public servant and a much loved friend and colleague," said Johnson, who rushed back to London from the west of England after the news broke.