County politicians caught up in attack on Westminster

A FORMER Leicestershire student was at the centre of last Wednesday’s horrific scenes outside Westminster.

Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood fought to save the life of PC Keith Palmer who was killed in the attack.

Mr Ellwood - a former Loughborough University student - rushed to help PC Palmer after he was stabbed outside Parliament.

For 15 agonising minutes, Mr Ellwood performed CPR on the bloodstained streets of London in a bid to keep PC Palmer alive.

PC Palmer was one of five people, including the attacker, who died.

A car had travelled at speed along Westminster Bridge striking a number of pedestrians before the attacker got out and stabbed the unarmed police officer.

Aysha Frade, who worked at a London college, was one of those who died.

Leslie Rhodes, from South London, was also hit by Masood’s hired car.

He was taken to hospital but died later.

Another victim was Kurt Cochran, 54, from Utah in the USA, who was visiting London with his wife Melissa to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. She was also injured in the attack. His family described him as a good man who owned his own recording studio.

Attacker Khalid Masood, 52, was shot dead by armed officers after stabbing PC Palmer and attempting to enter Parliament.

It later emerged the Muslim convert, born in Kent, had a history of violence and drug abuse.

He had lived in various parts of the country including recently in Birmingham.

Born Adrian Elms, it is believed he converted to Islam in 2005 but had no previous convictions for terrorism related offences.

He was not under investigation by intelligence services at the time of last week’s attack and investigators are still trying to ascertain his motive.

One woman who fell into the River Thames as Masood ploughed through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge was among 50 who wereinjured.

Mr Ellwood, 50, gave mouth-tomouth resuscitation to PC Palmer and put pressure on his wounds to stop the blood flow after he was stabbed by Masood just inside the gates of the Parliamentary estate.

Mr Ellwood, who was also elected President of the Students’ Union while at Loughborough University, then remained with the injured officer waiting for the air ambulance to arrive, which landed in Parliament Square.

He was pictured with blood on his face after the emergency services arrived.

PC Palmer later died prompting an outpouring of tributes from both fellow officers and the MPs he was working to protect inside Parliament.

Mr Ellwood, formerly a Captain in the Royal Green Jackets, said: “I am a witness, I was the last one on the scene before he died so I am not allowed to say anything.

“Number 10 has been in touch so I’ll get into trouble. It is now murder, I was on the scene and as soon as I realised what was going on I headed towards it. It is a huge tragedy, it really is. I tried to stem the flow of blood and give mouth to mouth while waiting for the medics to arrive but I think he had lost too much blood. ing the annual general meeting in Hinckley.

He added: “While it has brought home to me you can never plan for everything and there may always be the possibility of something happening, we cannot give in to terrorism.

“When we begin to change our patterns of life, that is when they have won.”

Leicestershire Police held a minute’s silence on Thursday in recognition of the sacrifice of a fellow officer and in honour of the two other victims killed and the dozens injured.

“He had multiple wounds, under the arm and in the back. As I understand it the attacker has also died. It’s very sad.”

The Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew Bridgen was seated just behind the Prime Minister in the House of Commons at the time of the incident.

He described the moment Theresa May was whisked away by security services as the terror attack on Parliament unfolded.

He said: “We were just about to vote and I was behind the Prime Minister and the first time I realised something was happening was when her security detail came and spoke to the Prime Minister and she moved away very quickly.

“They (security detail) were professional but it was obvious from their demeanour that this was not a drill and something serious had happened.”

Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan said: “I was heading towards the House of Commons when I heard gun fire before I was ordered to go to my office and the Parliamentary Estate was put on lockdown.”

Leicester’s deputy mayor Rory Palmer had crossed Westminster Bridge to get to the tube station near Parliament a short time before the attack.

He and a colleague from Nottingham had been in the capital for a Local Government Association health meeting.

He said: “We were potentially five minutes away from being in the middle of it. When we were walking across the bridge it was bustling with tourists, school trips and workers as it always is.

“It is horrific to think what then happened.