I heard bump, bump, bump.. then screams & bodies flying through the air
People caught up in the carnage relive their ordeal as normal day in central London turns into a nightmare
IT WAS an ordinary afternoon on Westminster Bridge – tourists thronging the pavements, traffic queuing at the lights and office workers trying to dodge them both to hurry across the river.
Couples with selfie sticks posed in front of Big Ben, a school party from Birmingham got a group shot of their day in the capital and sightseers on a bus tour got a potted history of Parliament. And then came carnage. Screams, panic, a speeding car, bodies thrown into the air, blood everywhere.
“I heard a ‘bump, bump, bump’ then people screaming,” said eyewitness Junior Kazadi, 35.
“When I looked up I could see people flying through the air.
“I ran up the bridge to help and saw three people lying in the road. One was an old man. He was unconscious but alive.
“I put my coat around him. He had blood all over his head and hands and he said his leg hurt. Then the ambulance arrived.” Angie Moore, here on a business from Canada, was halfway across the bridge and also saw people “flying in the air”.
She said: “There were people laid on the ground across the length of the bridge and car parts everywhere.” “Someone said there was a bomb under the bridge and we all ran.”
Security firm worker Dave Witherden was a passenger in a car driving across the bridge when it suddenly screeched to a halt.
He saw a grey car smash into a group of people.
He said: “We got out of the car and saw a woman on the ground. She was shaking and whimpering.
“Then the police came rushing over. An officer told me, ‘Run just f***ing run.’
“I felt Iike my life was ending. I felt like somewhere there was a bullet for me.”
New York student Lawrence Kaminski, 23, was on an open top bus tour with his mum Olga Sobolevsky, 46, when the terror unfolded. He said: “We suddenly heard a loud boom and the bus screeched to a halt.
“The driver was screaming ‘Oh no! Oh no! My mum was yelling at me not to look but I could see about seven people lying on the pavement.
“I don’t know if they were alive or not. There was a lot of blood.
“I think the bus driver saw it all – he was really shook up.”
Stephen Voake, 56, from Wells in Somerset, said: “I was crossing the bridge and began to hear screaming.
“Then I saw a trainer in the road and then a body on the other side of the road. I thought someone must’ve been hit by a car.
“But there was another body and further up another body. I heard people screaming.
Mr Voake added: “There was a body in the water. It was face down.”
Another witness, Bernadette, was on one of the tour buses. She said: “It was the noise I heard first of all. Then I saw a car go into pedestrians on the bridge.
“The bus was still moving and I saw people lying on the floor injured. There was about 10.”
Rob Lyon, 35, a marketing manager from Warwickshire, said: “I saw people being hit. I jumped from the pavement into the road. A gentleman who was hit flew past me.
“A woman had gone under the bus. It was almost as though the world slowed down.”
Terrified schoolchildren and
People were laid out across length of the bridge ANGIE MOORE
tourists fled in tears. A group of French schoolchildren from St Joseph high school, in Concarneau, Brittany, were found crying uncontrollably.
Three of their classmates had been mown down by the vehicle and two were seriously injured.
Some of the walking wounded were taken to Parliament’s office building Portcullis House, where a group of MPs had
I saw people being hit. A man who was hit flew by me ROB LYON
been trapped in a revolving door as Westminster went into lockdown.
After causing carnage on the bridge, the 4x4 crashed into railings near Westminster Underground Station.
A man in a cab behind it saw the armed attacker leap out. He said: “He slammed into all of these people and they went flying – it was horrific. Then he jumped out his car, holding two knives and ran around the corner.”
Tawhid Tanim was outside the Tube station when he heard gunshots. He said: “I heard “bang bang bang” and people started running. “I didn’t know what was happening but a grey car had smashed into Parliament and some people were trying to help a person on the ground. “Then loads of police came over and said ‘Run, run, run!’ I thought there could be bullets flying. I feared for my life.” Another witness, Jayne Wilkinson, said: “We were taking photos of Big Ben and saw people running towards us. Then there was an Asian guy in his 40s carrying a knife seven or eight inches long.
“There were three shots. We crossed the road and looked over. A man was on the floor with blood.”
A group of boxers visiting Parliament also saw the horror unfold in Old Palace Yard. Frazer Clarke, 25, from Burton-on-Trent, said: “We heard a bang and screaming. I looked towards the front gate and people were running, a police officer and a fellow coming to the gate with two knives. He was stabbing the officer.
“The officer was stumbling and fell. Another officer walked toward the guy with the knives and shot him twice.”
Pat McCormack, 21, from Washington in Tyne-on-Wear, added: “I saw him stabbing the officer in the back of the head and the back of the neck. He was running away but then collapsed.”
Emergency crews scrambled and an air ambulance landed in Parliament Square. But Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, of the British Medical Association, was already there.
He tried to resuscitate the injured policeman and the attacker, and worked with paramedics in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
He said: “I ran to help. The police got me in to help at the scene. We gave the officer cardiac massage and spent 52 minutes trying to resuscitate the other man.
“We did everything we could, in terms of basic life support and starting to triage injured people at the scene.”
As night fell, that scene was still littered with equipment used by emergency services trying to save lives.
Westminster had gone from tourist spot to terror site – a picture of horror.