DRAMATIC REPORTS AND PICTURES
Gunned down by police, his knives on ground ... fanatic’s last moments
TERROR struck at the heart of democracy yesterday in the UK’s worst atrocity since the London attacks of 2005.
In a savage assault on Parliament, a suspected Islamic State extremist mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring at least 40 more.
The maniac then slammed his 4x4 vehicle into barriers outside Parliament before charging into its main courtyard brandishing two knives.
An unarmed constable who tried to stop him was cut down without pity and died from stab wounds. He was named last night as Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old married father.
The senseless rampage, which was witnessed by hundreds of horrified tourists, was brought to a halt by a volley of shots from another officer. The attacker died in hospital – bringing the death toll to five.
As Theresa May condemned the ‘sick and depraved’ atrocity:
Police launched a massive manhunt for accomplices;
An urgent review of security of Parliament was under way;
There were claims that no armed officers were in the courtyard;
Parliament vowed to sit as usual today;
Channel 4 News and Wikipedia wrongly identified the attacker.
Speaking outside No 10 last night, the Prime Minister – her voice shaking – said: ‘For those of us who were in Parliament at the time of this attack, these events provide a particular reminder of the exceptional bravery of our police and security services who risk their lives to keep us safe.
‘Once again today, these exceptional men and women ran towards the danger even as they encouraged others to move the other way.’
Victims suffered what doctors called ‘catastrophic injuries’ after the crazed attacker mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians as he sped toward Big Ben at around 2.40pm.
Amid the carnage, some leapt off the bridge to escape, and one woman was later pulled alive from the Thames. Another woman ended up beneath the wheels of a double decker bus. Among the injured were university students and a party of French schoolchildren.
Three people were killed on the bridge as the Hyundai left a terrible trail of bloodied twisted bodies.
Rob Lyon, 34, from Rugby in Warwickshire, said: ‘I heard the clang of metal on the pavement. I saw a man flung into the air from the impact, and a woman was under a bus. She didn’t look like she had much chance.’ The car then smashed into security railings outside Parliament.
Jayne Wilkinson said: ‘We were taking photos of Big Ben and we saw all the people running toward us, and then there was an Asian guy in about his 40s carrying a knife about seven or eight inches long.’
In a devastating breach of security, the knifeman was able to storm into the parliamentary grounds.
Rick Longley said: ‘A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman.’
Pat McCormack, 21, from Tyne and Wear, said: ‘I saw him stabbing the officer in the back of the head and the back of the neck. He was running away but then he collapsed.’
The second officer chased the fanatic, who was heading for a visitor cafe, and shot him three or four times.
Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was murdered by terrorists in Bali in 2002, was among those who tried in vain to save the stabbed policeman’s life.
He left the scene looking bereft, with the officer’s blood on his face.
Scotland Yard’s top anti-terror officer Mark Rowley said: ‘This was a day we’ve planned for but hoped would never happen.
‘Sadly it is now a reality.’ Paying tribute to Mr Palmer, who had been an officer for 15 years, he said: ‘He was someone who left for work today expecting to return home at the end of his shift.’
He added: ‘We think we know who the attacker is. We are working through associates.’
Asked about the motivation of the attack, Mr Rowley said: ‘Islamicrelated terrorism is our assumption.’
He said the investigation – involving hundreds of officers – was ‘moving at a fast pace’ and teams would work through the night. ‘Only then will the full picture be known,’ Mr Rowley
‘Exceptional bravery of our police’
said. ‘ Officers are taking statements from the hundreds of people who were nearby as today’s attack unfolded.’
But the Metropolitan Police Service is facing searching questions over how the jihadi slipped through an open gate into the grounds of the Houses of Parliament.
The attack was witnessed by acting Met Commissioner Craig Mackey – who is being treated as a ‘significant witness’ and is taking no part in the investigation.
Coming a year to the day after bombings in Brussels, the attack bore the hallmarks of Islamic State. Security sources said the method used pointed toward the barbaric militants responsible for a series of devastating attacks across Europe. Last July, 86 people were killed when a truck was driven through crowds enjoying fireworks in Nice.
Then in Berlin, 12 people were killed and 56 injured when a lunatic drove a lorry into a Christmas market.
MPs were locked in the chamber of the House of Commons for almost five hours after business was suspended.
Only after dark had fallen was a security lockdown lifted, allowing hundreds of parliamentarians to leave the building.
Nearby hospitals including St Thomas’ and Chelsea and Westminster treated the victims, with some doctors running to the bridge to help, and an air ambulance landing in Parliament Square. It was the worst attack in the UK since the London transport network atrocities of July 2005, which cost 52 lives.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, cutting short a trip to Pakistan, urged the public to remain calm but vigilant.
Parliament was full of visiting school children during the attack. They were kept inside before it was deemed safe. One witness said: ‘All I could hear were loud shots, like gun shots... bang, bang, bang.’
The London Eye was stopped and tourists were left stranded in pods around the wheel until they could be interviewed by police as crucial potential eyewitnesses. Parliament’s press gallery cafeteria was used a first aid post. Outside, bus driver Michael Adamou, 25, said: ‘Everybody on my bus was panicking. I saw everybody laying on the bridge, not moving. When I was getting everybody off, I heard one guy come running behind me shouting his wife had jumped into the river to avoid getting knocked down.’
The woman was last night reported to be a Romanian in her 30s. She was thrown over the parapet into the river 20ft below, and swept downstream, the Sun reported.
She was said to have been spotted by crew aboard the Millennium Diamond cruise ship
who alerted a fire brigade vessel on an exercise nearby. They hooked the woman out of the water. She is believed to have suffered serious head injuries.
Four university students were injured as they were caught up in the attack. Among them was Owen Lambert, 18, from Morecambe, who needed stitches to a head wound, and Travis Frain, from Darwen, in Lancashire. Travis’s mother, Angela, said he was in ‘good spirits’ and in hospital. He reportedly suffered a cracked rib and minor injuries to his hand and arm.
Three of the French school pupils were badly hurt. Believed to be 15 or 16, they came from a private lycee in Concarneau, Brittany. Fellow pupils said they were seconds from death as the driver targeted them. One boy, named only as Kilian, said: ‘We saw the car smash into a group. Twenty seconds later and it would have been us.’
Last night two patients were critically ill at King’s hospital in south-east London, with a further eight patients there and at St Thomas’ described as stable.
Security around the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family was dramatically stepped up following the attack. The gates to Buckingham Palace – where the monarch was in residence – were closed and armed guards took up positions.
Security services have foiled 13 potential attacks in four years with counter-terrorism units running more than 500 investigations at any one time. In her emotional statement in Downing Street, Mrs May said: ‘The full details of exactly what happened are still emerging. But, having been updated by police and security officials, I can confirm that this appalling incident began when a single attacker drove his vehicle into pedestrians walking across Westminster Bridge, killing two people and injuring many more.
‘This attacker, who was armed with a knife, then ran toward Parliament where he was confronted by the police officers who keep us – and our democratic institutions – safe.’ She said the threat level would not change from the current ‘severe’. The PM added: ‘ On behalf of the whole country, I want to pay tribute to them – and to all our emergency services – for the work they have been doing to reassure the public and bring security back to the streets of our capital city. That they have lost one of their own in today’s attack only makes their calmness and professionalism under pressure all the more remarkable. The location of this attack was no accident.
‘The terrorists chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech.’