Carnage (and kindness) on Westminster Bridge
They didn’t stand a chance.
As the maniac ploughed along Westminster Bridge in his two-ton hyundai SUV, frequently mounting the crowded pavement, he mowed down pedestrians like ninepins.
Of those who managed to dive out of his murderous path, one woman ended up under a bus and at least two more leapt over the bridge parapet in a desperate bid to escape.
Among those struck were three police officers on their way back from a commendation ceremony. French teenagers on a school visit to London were also among those targeted. Three people were killed and many were left with ‘catastrophic’ injuries amid a scene of horrifying carnage.
The killer began his rampage at the south side of Westminster Bridge. One of his first victims was a blonde woman. She was seen lying on the ground with blood pouring from a head wound – and shock in her eyes.
A few feet away another person lay on their back, surrounded by people trying to help. A man appeared to have either jumped or been thrown from the bridge, and had fallen to concrete steps about 18ft below. he lay motionless with a dark pool of blood around his head and his leg obviously broken.
Moving along the bridge, a bald man lay on the white line between the bus lane and main carriageway, clutching his head.
One of the most harrowing scenes was the sight of a woman’s legs poking out from under the wheel of a London double-decker bus. It appeared she was either struck by the terrorist or may have tried to dodge him, only to run into the path of the No 53.
A few feet further along was a man on his back. his trainers were scattered nearby and his socks torn. he held one bloodied hand up in the air. A smartly dressed woman was crouched by his head, cradling him, bent over so her face was almost touching his.
Then there was a shell- shocked person with curly hair, sitting up. Nearby on the pavement lay fragments of what looked like parts of the car, possibly the bumper. A little further along was a bearded man, wearing a black blazer, lying on his back with his face smeared with blood. he was surrounded by passers-by, one of whom appeared to be taking his pulse. A woman in long black boots was next, lying on her back as people tried to help her.
The last victim on the bridge, on the Palace of Westminster side, appeared to be a man who was receiving urgent treatment from paramedics administering oxygen and inserting a drip into his arm.
Rob Lyon, 34, from Rugby, Warwickshire, was visibly shaking as he told how a walk across the bridge turned to terror.
he said: ‘I heard a wheel hit a kerb and quite a large crunch noise. I looked up and saw a car clearly hitting people as it came towards me.
‘I heard the clang of metal on the pave-
‘I saw a man flung into the air’
ment. I saw a man flung into the air from the impact, and a woman was under a bus. She didn’t look like she had much chance.
‘A colleague I was with, I heard him shout but I just instinctively jumped off the pavement and I could see people getting hit.
‘Then the car just carried on up the bridge and I looked round me in shock.
‘I just saw people being hit by a car at speed, it was harrowing. I sort of went into shock mode. I was aware of all the people I had walked passed who were previously having selfies with Big Ben.
‘I was numb – it felt like I was in the middle of a Hollywood movie, you see these things but suddenly I was in the middle of it.’
‘There was a big group of Chinese tourists and I hope they’re all okay. I was about a metre away from being hit myself.’
Ismael Hassan described seeing the 4x4 ‘zig zag’ along the bridge, while Richard Tice said: ‘Literally from north to south, the whole length of the bridge, there were people on the ground who had clearly been injured. I must have counted between eight and ten prostrate figures on the ground.’
Radoslow Sikorski, a former Polish foreign minister, was in a taxi on the bridge. He said: ‘I heard what I thought was just a collision, then I looked through the window of the taxi and I saw someone down, obviously in great distress, and then I saw a second person down.
‘Then I saw three more people down, one of them bleeding profusely.’ Steve Voake, 55, of Somerset, said: ‘I was just walking across the bridge and suddenly a bus stopped and everyone started screaming.
‘I saw a trainer lying in the road and when I looked more closely I saw that there were a couple of bodies the other side of the road. And when I looked over the side there was another body lying in the water with blood all around it.’
Sri, a 32-year- old pharmacist heading home from work at St Thomas’s Hospital, said: ‘I fell to the ground as the car came towards us. I just collapsed, it was so quick. I saw two men on the ground, there was blood everywhere. I saw a woman, a Chinese tourist I think, she had been hit too. They were all alive I think and they were rescued by the ambulance.’
Doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital – at the south end of the bridge – raced out to help, and described finding ‘catastrophic injuries’. Colleen Anderson, a junior doctor, said: ‘I was on the ward and we all just went out and helped and got blankets. We are trained for these events.
‘I walked past about nine injuries, some weren’t so significant. Some were unconscious, some regained consciousness.’
Three French teenagers were among those hit on the bridge, their school in Concarneau, Brittany, confirmed. The students, aged 15 and 16, were wounded.
Travis Frain, a politics student at Edge Hill University, was one of those injured on the bridge, his family confirmed.
Travis’s mother, Angela, told the Guardian that he was in ‘good spirits’ in hospital. He reportedly suffered a cracked rib and minor injuries to his hand and arm.
‘Catastrophic injuries’