Terror attack leaves 5 dead in London

Assailant used SUV to mow down pedestrians near Houses of Parliament

Ak nife-wielding assailant driving a sport utility vehicle mowed down panicked pedestrians and stabbed a police officer outside Parliament on Wednesday in a deadly assault, prompting the hasty evacuation of the prime minister and punctuating the threat of terrorism in Europe.

At least five people, including the assailant, were killed and at least 40 others injured in the confusing swirl of violence, which the police said they assumed had been “inspired by international terrorism.”

It appeared to be the most serious such assault in London since the deadly subway bombings more than a decade ago.

Throughout a turbulent afternoon, ambulances, emergency vehicles and heavily armed security officers thronged the area outside Parliament, as one of the busiest sections of London was cordoned off and evacuated.

Prime Minister Theresa May was rushed into a vehicle and spirited back to her office. She held a meeting of the government’s emergency committee and issued a statement on Wednesday night from her 10 Downing St. residence denouncing “the sick and depraved terrorist attack on the streets of our Capital this afternoon.”

May also said that “the full details of exactly what happened are still emerging,” but she confirmed that the attack had been carried out by a lone male assailant. As of late Wednesday, his identity had not been released, but Scotland Yard officials said they believed they knew who he was.

The attack unfolded around 2:40 p.m., Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said at a news conference. Driving a large sport utility vehicle, the assailant slammed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near Parliament, killing two people and injuring many others, before crashing into a railing. A third person injured on the bridge later died at a hospital.

After the crash, the driver left the vehicle and approached Parliament, where he stabbed an armed police officer to death and was fatally shot by the police. The dead officer was identified as Keith Palmer, 48, a member of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command with 15 years of experience.

“This is the day we have planned for but we hoped would never happen,” Rowley said. “Sadly, it’s now a reality.”

The attack came on the anniversary of suicide bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people, along with three bombers.

It confirmed fears among counterterrorism officials that London, which had largely escaped recent terrorist attacks in Europe, would join cities like Paris, Brussels and Berlin as targets of mass violence.

Britain has not suffered a large-scale terrorist attack since July 7, 2005, when bomb attacks on subway trains and on a bus killed more than 50 people. Political violence is relatively rare in Britain, where gun ownership is restricted.

Jo Cox, a Labour member of Parliament, was assassinated in her constituency in northern England on June 16, a week before the contentious referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.

“Terrorism affects us all, and France knows the pain the British people are enduring today,” President François Hollande of France said.

May, who spoke with Hollande and President Donald Trump, said in her statement that Parliament would meet as normal Thursday. She vowed to never permit “the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.”

Cmdr. B.J. Harrington of the Metropolitan Police said at a brief news conference earlier Wednesday that a “full counterterrorism investigation is underway.” He asked members of the public to report any suspicious activity and to share any images or video of the violence.

At least three police officers were among those injured on the bridge. Also among the injured were three 10th-grade boys from a group of visiting students from the Brittany region of France, and a woman who fell or plunged into the River Thames.

For more than two hours, astonished lawmakers inside the House of Commons, some of whom had ducked for cover, were told to stay in place as officers searched the premises.

“At the moment, the very clear advice from the police and the director of security in the house is that we should remain under suspension, and that the chamber should remain in lockdown until we’ve received advice that it is safe to go back to normal procedures,” David Lidington, the leader of the House of Commons, or lower house of Parliament, told lawmakers in remarks broadcast live on the BBC.

Olly Grender, a member of the House of Lords, said lawmakers were staying put. “We were in a meeting, I heard shouting through the window,” she said, adding that a colleague then came in to tell them a serious episode had taken place.

Jayne Wilkinson, 59, from Birmingham, was near the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square with her partner, David Turner, 56, when they saw people suddenly running from Parliament. The couple said they had seen a middle-aged man holding a knife. He ignored warnings from the police, running though the gates into the Parliament compound, she said.

Corinne Desray, a teacher who was outside Parliament with 39 teenage students on a three-day school trip from northern France, said they had heard three shots. “My colleague saw bodies lying on the floor and someone said a policeman has been knived,” she said.

Andrew Bone, executive director of the Responsible Jewellery Council, an industry standards group, was on a bus heading toward Victoria Station when it was stopped at the edge of Parliament Square. Seeing the commotion, he initially thought an action movie was being shot, but quickly discerned the gravity of the situation as the bus was evacuated.

“We had a front-row seat as the first responders arrived,” Bone said. “I am of the generation who remembers IRA bombs in London during the Troubles,” he said, referring to the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. “We are not indifferent, but police have reacted with calm. I saw no panic.”