HORROR OF WITNESSES:
An officer told me, ‘Run, just f***ing run.’ I felt my life was ending DAVE WITHERDEN ON SCENES ON THE BRIDGE There was a trainer in the road and then a body on the other side STEPHEN VOAKE ON CARNAGE ON THE BRIDGE
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 visit, and sightseers on a London Bus tour got a potted history of Parliament. French students took in the Thames view that inspired a Wordsworth sonnet and a dad up from the country enjoyed a stroll before taking his daughter to a West End show. 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 witness Junior Kazadi, 35. “When I looked up I could see people flying through the air. “I ran to help and saw three people lying in the road. One was an old man. I put my coat around him. He had blood all over his head and hands and said his leg hurt. Then the police and ambulance arrived.”
WHIMPERING
Angie Moore, here on business from Canada, was halfway over the bridge and also saw people “flying in the air”. “There were people laid on the ground across the length of the bridge, car parts everywhere,” she said. Security firm worker Dave Witherden was in a car crossing the bridge and saw a grey SUV smash into a group of people. He said: “We got out and saw a woman on the ground. She was shaking and whimpering. Then police came rushing over. An officer told me: ‘Run, just f***ing run.’ I felt like 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 mum Olga Sobolevsky, 46. “We heard a loud boom and the bus screeched to a halt,” he said. “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 driver saw it all. He was 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. “People started dealing with casualties. I went to try and stop people coming on to the bridge. “There was a body in the water. It was face down. Then there was a kind of lull and I could see people calling the emergency services.” Another witness, Bernadette, was on a tour bus. She said: “It was the noise I heard first. Then I saw a car go into pedestrians. The bus was still moving and I saw people lying on the floor injured. There was about 10 people.” 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 schoolkids and tourists fled in tears. As they streamed along the Embankment, they were watched by hundreds stuck on the London Eye.
LOCKDOWN
A group of French schoolchildren on a visit from St Joseph high school, in Concarneau, Brittany, were found crying uncontrollably. Three classmates had been mown down by the vehicle and two were seriously injured. Some of the walking wounded were taken to Portcullis House, where a group of MPS had been trapped in a revolving door as Westminster went into lockdown. After causing carnage on the bridge, the 4X4 crashed into railings close to Westminster Underground Station. A man in a taxi behind it saw the armed attacker leap out. He said: “He slammed into all of these people and they went flying – it was truly 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.
STABBING
“The officer was stumbling and fell. Another officer walked toward the guy with the knives and shot him twice.” Pat Mccormack, 21, from Washington, Tyne and 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, chairman of the junior doctors’ committee at the British Medical Association, was already there. He had been talking to a BBC team when the horror unfolded around him. 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.
I saw him stabbing the officer in the back of the head and neck PAT MCCORMACK ON HORROR KNIFE ATTACK