Driver rams cyclists outside U.K. parliament
Possible link to 2017 attack being probed
LONDON • A terror suspect is believed to have staked out the area around the Houses of Parliament in London for an hour and 30 minutes before mowing down a group of cyclists.
The 29-year-old man, believed to be of Sudanese origin, waited until the morning rush hour before swerving on to the wrong side of the road and hitting cyclists who were waiting at traffic lights, then crashed into barriers outside the entrance to the House of Lords.
The man, who has British nationality, had driven from his home 200 kilometres away in Birmingham, sparking suggestions that it was an attempted “copycat” attack to that perpetrated by Khalid Masood a year earlier which killed six people.
Masood had lived just 10 minutes from the suspect’s home in Birmingham. Masood took a rented car to Westminster and mowed down five people before jumping out and stabbing a police officer, Keith Palmer, to death. Masood was shot by police.
Security services will be keen to establish whether there are any connections between the pair.
Three cyclists were injured in the attack. Two who required hospital treatment were released Tuesday night.
It was suggested that the attacker, who was known to have been in Westminster since 6 a.m., may have been on a reconnaissance mission and was spooked into taking immediate action at 7.37 a.m. when an ambulance pulled up behind him with sirens blazing.
Jason Williams said he saw a car moving at high speed.
“It didn’t look like an accident,” he said. “How do you do that by accident?”
Donovan Parsons, a cameraman, was filming outside Parliament when he heard a loud crash.
“I saw the car crash into the barrier outside Westminster Palace, with smoke coming out of the vehicle. Police were around it, telling people to get back. They dragged someone out of the car.”
“The car drove at speed into the barriers outside the House of Lords. There was a loud bang from the collision and a bit of smoke,” Ewelina Ochab told The Associated Press. “The driver did not get out. The guards started screaming to people to move away.”
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu of the Metropolitan Police told reporters, “Given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident.”
Scotland Yard said that the man was not known to counter-terror police or the secret service, but sources suggested that he was known to West Midlands Police which covers Birmingham.
Police said the suspect was not cooperating.
In a statement, Prime Minister Theresa May said: “For the second time in as many years the home of our democracy, which is a potent symbol of our precious values of tolerance and freedom, has witnessed terrible scenes just yards from its door.
“The threat to the United Kingdom from terrorism remains severe. I would urge the public to remain vigilant, but also to come together and carry on as normal.”
Reacting to the attack, President Donald Trump said on Twitter: “These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength!”
Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said the attack seemed to be a “very poor copycat” of Masood’s attack on March 22 last year and pointed out police found no weapons in the car.
After a meeting of the government’s crisis committee, COBRA, officials said Britain’s terrorism threat level would remain at “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely.
The early morning scenes brought a sense of déjà vu to many Londoners, whose city has been a target of violent attacks over the decades — from Irish militants, Islamic jihadists and far-right extremists.
Last year alone, the city was hit by three deadly attacks. In March 2017, there was the Masood attack. Less than three months later, a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge.
In June 2017, a far-right extremist drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a London mosque, killing one and injuring eight.
That attack followed the suicide bombing a month earlier at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people.