Search for answers after terror returns to London
Armed police in Birmingham raid as MPs say attack could have been prevented
Counterterror detectives were last night continuing to search for clues about how an armed attacker brought death and destruction to the streets of London yesterday.
Four people were killed in the “sick and depraved” terror attack, including a police officer who was stabbed and his assailant.
Mark Rowley, Scotland Yard’s top antiterror officer, confirmed that 40 people were injured after the attacker — armed with two large knives — mowed down pedestrians with his car on Westminster Bridge then rushed at the gates in front of the Houses of Parliament, stabbing a plainclothes policeman before he was shot by armed officers.
The officer who died was named as Keith Palmer, 48, a husband and father, whose bravery was hailed by colleagues, friends and the many MPs whom he was charged with protecting.
The two other dead are understood to be people who were hit by the car on Westminster Bridge.
Rowley declined to name the attacker, but said police suspect he was “inspired by international terrorism” — and that they believed they knew who he was.
BBC Newsnight reported there was a suggestion the car used in the attack was hired from an address in Birmingham. Armed police raided a property in the city.
Rowley said last night: “The inquiries in Birmingham, London and other parts of the country are continuing. It is still our belief — which continues to be borne out by our investigation — that this attacker acted alone and was inspired by international terrorism.
“To be explicit, at this stage we have no specific information about further threats to the public.”
Witnesses described scenes of terror when gunfire rang out as the attacker approached a second officer within yards of the Houses of Parliament.
The suspected attacker was pictured being treated by paramedics on a stretcher, as two knives used in
We will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart. Theresa May
the assault lay on the ground nearby.
Paramedics fought to save his life and that of Palmer on the floor of the cobbled courtyard in front of Parliament, with Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood among those who rushed to help.
MPs said the terror attack could have been prevented if police on duty at a well-known security “weak spot” had simply kept it bolted.
The killer managed to get in through a vehicle gate in New Palace Yard — used by the Prime Minister and other members of the Government — because it was not locked.
Prime Minister Theresa May has described the attack as “sick and depraved”.
Speaking outside 10 Downing St after chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee, May paid tribute to the “exceptional men and women” of the police force who responded to the attack.
May said that any attempt to defeat the values that Parliament stands for was “doomed to failure”.
And she vowed: “We will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.”
Footage later emerged of the moment police opened fire after the attacker drove a grey Hyundai i40 across Westminster Bridge before crashing it into railings then running through the gates of the Palace of Westminster.
In other developments, a woman who apparently fell into the Thames was rescued and given urgent medical treatment on a nearby pier.
London Ambulance Service said paramedics had treated at least 10 patients on Westminster Bridge.
A party of French schoolchildren were among those targeted on the bridge, with three injured.
It was the deadliest attack in London since four British Islamists killed 52 commuters and themselves in suicide bombings on the city’s transport system in July 2005, in London’s worst peacetime attack.
It took place on the first anniversary of attacks by Islamist militants that killed 32 people in Brussels.