The Province

London terror attack leaves five dead

Assailant, police officer and pedestrian­s on Westminste­r Bridge are among victims

- JOSEPH BREAN jbrean@nationalpo­st.com Twitter.com/JosephBrea­n

It was just after 2:30 p.m. in London when a dark grey Mercedes, driven by a lone terrorist, sped across Westminste­r Bridge toward the Houses of Parliament.

What followed was the worst terror attack in London since the 2005 Tube bombings, and the worst on Parliament since the days of the IRA.

The car crossed to the wrong side of the road, mounted the sidewalk, and mowed down more than 20 people, including four South Korean tourists, three French teenagers on a school trip, and three police officers who had just had a ceremony of commendati­on. Some suffered minor injuries, others were knocked unconsciou­s and left with what a doctor called “life changing injuries.”

One man in a black suit was left lying on his back, a spurt of fresh blood visible under his obviously broken left leg. Three pedestrian­s, as yet unidentifi­ed, were killed. A woman ended up in the Thames below and was seen floating face down, but was rescued alive. It is not known whether she went over the barrier deliberate­ly to escape the attack.

The car continued over the bridge, passing beneath the iconic clock tower, and crashed into the iron and stone barrier wall of the Palace of Westminste­r, the historical wellspring of parliament­ary democracy.

Leaving the vehicle crumpled, with its engine smoking and driver’s door open, the attacker turned the corner to the main gates, as police shouted at people to run away. Eyewitness Sam Coates, a reporter for The Times, said he saw a man push through the guarded entrance, and make it into the interior courtyard.

“I saw him run towards the entrance to Westminste­r Hall,” Coates said.

Police were instantly in pursuit, and an officer confronted him, only to be brutally stabbed, over and over again.

Rick Longley told The Times: “We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrian­s out. They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben. A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that.”

Two other officers opened fire, three shots in all, leaving both the attacker and the injured police officer lying on the ground about five metres from each other, just inside the gates. The medical efforts to save both were extraordin­ary. Some officers attended to the attacker’s injuries, while another held a gun aimed at him. Images from the scene show a large man with a shaved head and a beard being tended to by paramedics. Two knives could be seen on the cobbleston­es nearby.

A government minister, Tobias Ellwood, performed CPR on the stabbed officer as an air ambulance landed. Both efforts were in vain, though. Both the officer and the attacker died. Three civilians were killed on the bridge, and at least 20 were injured.

This was London’s first major terrorist incident since the summer of 2005, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people on public transit.

It comes exactly a year after attacks on the airport and transit in Brussels that killed 32 people, but it is unknown if that is significan­t. There has been as yet no claim of responsibi­lity, and the dead attacker remains unidentifi­ed.

As in the attacks on the waterfront in Nice and a Christmas market in Berlin, this was an attack that began with random vehicular homicide. It then became an opportunis­tic attack on police. The attacker’s death at the hands of police might have prevented further carnage inside, though, as it appears the man was set on entering Parliament.

Inside, Prime Minister Theresa May was bustled to safety. Counter-terrorism police swarmed in, dressed in plaincloth­es and wearing balaclavas. MPs were told to get on the ground and crawl to safety. They were locked down for hours, some in the House of Commons. Others, including MPs and members of the House of Lords, along with tourists and staff, were evacuated to Westminste­r Abbey.

“As part of long establishe­d and well rehearsed plans, Parliament was locked down and the Met responded in line with our plans for a marauding terrorist attack,” said Mark Rowley, head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolit­an Police Service.

 ?? — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? A policeman points a gun as emergency services attend the scene outside the Palace of Westminste­r in London on Wednesday. It was the worst terror attack in London since the 2005 Tube bombings, and the worst on Parliament since the days of the IRA.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A policeman points a gun as emergency services attend the scene outside the Palace of Westminste­r in London on Wednesday. It was the worst terror attack in London since the 2005 Tube bombings, and the worst on Parliament since the days of the IRA.

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