Mystery of white van following car suspect
A WHITE van filmed driving erratically as it pursued the terror suspect who ploughed into cyclists and pedestrians is at the centre of growing speculation that the “attacker” was being followed.
As police and security sources insisted that the 29-year-old motorist arrested at the scene was not known to them or under surveillance at the time, analysis of footage of the “attack” reveals how an unmarked van made a series of extreme manoeuvres to keep up with the suspect.
A 47-second clip of the incident prompted Conservative MP Mark Francois, who served as a minister in the Ministry of Defence, to describe the mystery vehicle’s antics as “classic security” behaviour, similar to that used during surveillance operations. Detectives have now established that the suspect, understood to be from the West Midlands, drove the Ford Fiesta, which is privately owned and has the registration FL10 CWZ, from Birmingham to London late on Monday night.
From 1.55am to 5.55am it roamed around the West End, including along Tottenham Court Road near Soho, home to many late-night clubs, before heading to Whitehall and Westminster around 6am as the city began to wake.
Footage shot by a BBC camera installed on top of a building on Millbank and permanently trained on Parliament Square captures the Fiesta and the van driving clockwise into Parliament Square.
While the Fiesta does not have its lights on, the van does. The camera films the moments leading up to 7.37am when the car ploughs into the security barriers, forcing two police officers to leap out of the way.
Nearly a minute before the impact, the white van tries to keep up with the Fiesta, which has pulled into the inside lane on Parliament Square as if heading north to either Victoria or to loop around the square.
Initially, the white van swerves from the outside lane as if trying to keep behind the Fiesta. But the van is cut up by an ambulance, responding to an emergency call, which zigzags across the lanes to overtake the suspect.
After initially straddling two lanes, the van opts to follow the Fiesta into the inside lane. While it is unknown whether the suspect panics after seeing flashing lights and hearing sirens, it swerves violently through what eye witnesses say was a red light before driving into waiting cyclists on the opposite side of the road.
It mounts part of the pedestrian island and travels west at speed along Abingdon Street, directly opposite the House of Lords. While other motorists abandon their cars to try to help the injured cyclists and pedestrians, the white van does no such thing.
Instead, it gives chase again, turning hard left, cutting up a vehicle behind it, mounting part of the pedestrian island
and also driving towards Abingdon Street. By then the Ford Fiesta has picked up speed and is about to ram the security barrier checkpoint.
Despite the van being blocked behind another vehicle, the driver is undeterred and tries to squeeze past, again clipping the pedestrian island, eventually forcing the obstructing vehicle aside, and then pulls up yards from the now smoking silver Fiesta which left petrol leaking across the road from its tank.
Although no one actually gets out of the van, the BBC clip stops with the white van parked facing the alleged attacker’s car. It is not possible to see how many people are in the van, its number plate or any markings on its side. Last night, a Whitehall security source insisted the white van was a “red herring”. A security source said a surveillance team would normally include a motorcyclist who would be able to give better pursuit in congestion, but video footage shows no such motorcycle.
Although Scotland Yard last night said an unmarked police vehicle was “in the vicinity at the time”, they said it was on “unrelated matters”, adding that the unarmed officers who got out were not required as armed police were already there. Other elements about the actual arrest appear unusual, when compared with the terror attack last year. Khalid Masood was shot dead by armed police after he ploughed his SUV into pedestrians before running towards Westminster in March 2017.
Yesterday’s suspect was handcuffed and removed from the Ford Fiesta without appearing to resist. Footage of him being led away showed him as being calm. It appeared he had targeted the House of Commons during recess when few politicians were about.
Eyewitness Geoffrey Woodman, a management consultant from Battersea, was cycling to work when he heard a “loud screech” and the car slammed into the woman on the bicycle next to him. “One slight turn of the wheel and it would have taken me out,” the 27-year-old said. “I heard a car screeching over the bridge. It was obscured behind a van at first but then it cut out in front of us through the red light on the wrong side of the road.
“It swerved left and hit the lady two bikes to my left. It was going about 40 to 50mph. Its windscreen hit her quite hard as she was trying to jump off to the left. I’m jumping off to the right and once it had gone past I looked to the left and saw her on the ground with bikes everywhere. It was chaos.”
This latest apparent attack has renewed calls for Parliament Square to be pedestrianised. The road outside Parliament could be closed to prevent further attacks under plans being considered by ministers.
Parliamentary authorities are in talks with the Home Office and Mayor of London about a feasibility study into permanently closing Abingdon Street to traffic. Ben Wallace, the security minister, yesterday confirmed that the Government would help fund a £5 mil- lion study into the plans.
It comes amid concerns that Parliament is in danger of losing its World Heritage status because of the bollards and steel defences at the 184-year-old building. Nigel Evans, the Conservative MP, said the latest attack again illustrated the need for “something to be done to protect politicians”. “I first got elected 26 years ago,” he told Talk Radio. “There was none of that protection. There were not any armed police, all of that has been stepped up as a response to several instances in the past.
“I suspect this is now going to reignite the debate about whether the whole of Parliament Square should be pedestrianised to ensure anybody can’t weaponise a vehicle and attempt, and indeed destroy, our democracy.”
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said it was a “national disgrace” that one of the capital’s most famous squares was dominated by vehicles driving around it.
‘I heard a car screeching over the bridge. It was obscured at first but then it cut out in front of us’