4 killed, 40 injured in attack in London
Man drives into crowd and fatally stabs cop at Parliament
LONDON — A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage in the heart of Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, plowing a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before stabbing an armed police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament. The assailant killed four people and injured 40 others in what Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a “sick and depraved terrorist attack.”
The attack shut down Parliament, leaving hundreds of lawmakers and workers in lockdown for several hours. May was in the lobby of the House of Commons before she was whisked to safety.
The assailant was shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament, just yards from entrances to the building itself and in the shadow of the Big Ben clock tower. He died, as
did three civilians and the police officer.
A doctor who treated the wounded from the bridge said some had “catastrophic” injuries. Three police officers, several French teenagers on a school trip and two Romanian tourists were among the injured.
Police said they were treating the attack as terrorism. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said police believed there was only one attacker.
“This is a day we planned for but hoped would never happen,” he said. “Sadly, it’s now a reality.”
Rowley said Islamic extremism is suspected in the attack. He said extra armed police would be on the streets in the coming days to reassure the public, and hundreds of police officers are working on the case.
He identified the police officer who died as Keith Palmer, 48.
The threat level for international terrorism in the U.K. was already listed at severe, meaning an attack was considered “highly likely.”
May, speaking outside 10 Downing St., said attempts to defeat British values of democracy and freedom through terrorism would fail.
“Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal,” she said. Londoners and visitors “will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.”
President Donald Trump was among world leaders offering condolences, and in Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were dimmed in solidarity with London.
Wednesday was the anniversary of the suicide bombings in the Brussels airport and subway that killed 32 people last year, and the latest events echoed recent vehicle attacks in Berlin and Nice, France.
In the House of Commons, deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that the sitting was being suspended and told lawmakers not to leave.
Parliament was locked down for several hours.
Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in the Bali terror attack in 2002, performed first aid on the wounded police officer, who later died. About 10 yards away lay the assailant.
“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,” he said. “He had multiple wounds.”
The attack began Wednesday afternoon as a driver in a gray SUV slammed into pedestrians on the bridge linking Parliament to the south bank of the River Thames.
Ambulances arrived within minutes to treat people who lay scattered along the length of the bridge. One bloodied woman lay surrounded by scattered postcards. Police said one injured woman was pulled from the river.
The car crashed into railings on the north side of the bridge, less than 200 yards from the entrance to Parliament. As people scattered in panic, witnesses saw a man holding a knife run toward the building.
“The whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates, just opposite Big Ben,” said witness Rick Longley. “A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that. I just can’t believe what I just saw.”
The attacker managed to get past a gate into Parliament’s fenced-in New Palace Yard, a cobbled courtyard in the shadow of the Big Ben clock tower.
Daily Mail journalist Quentin Letts said a man in black attacked the police officer before being shot two or three times as he tried to storm into the building.
“As this attacker was running toward the entrance, two plain-clothed guys with guns shouted at him what sounded like a warning, he ignored it and they shot two or three times and he fell,” Letts told the BBC.
The attacker fell just yards from the entrance to 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall. Beyond that, a corridor leads to the building’s Central Lobby, flanked by the House of Commons and House of Lords chambers.
The prime minister was among lawmakers near the Commons at the time of the attack and was quickly ushered away by security officers and driven back to Downing Street.