Prince visits student Travis after terror attack
AN Edge Hill student hospitalised in the Westminster terror attack was visited by Prince Charles.
The Prince of Wales paid a visit to Travis Frain, 19, after the politics student was injured in the attack.
Travis, from Darwen in Lancashire, was on Westminster Bridge when a car mowed down several people.
He was one of four Edge Hill students injured while on a politics trip to the Houses of Parliament.
The rest of the group have since returned from London, but Travis was left needing surgery on his knee.
Another student targeted in the attack spoke out this week, calling for “love and compassion” in the wake of last week’s events.
In an interview with BBC North West Tonight, Owen Lambert said: “I don’t want to blame anyone.
“I want us all to make sure we are thankful for what we have – for the people that are still alive and the people that are currently recovering.
“We should try and unify through that – through love and compassion rather than through our hatred and our anger about what happened.”
The group of 13 students were visiting parliament for a politics and public relations trip, and were due to meet with local MP Rosie Cooper later in the afternoon.
West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper had met the group of Edge Hill students caught up in the attack just minutes before they were targeted by a car driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.
Terrorist Khalid Masood used a rental car to plough into pedestrians on the bridge – killing London college worker and mumof-two Aysha Frade, 43, US tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, and south London pensioner Leslie Rhodes, 75 – before fatally stabbing PC Palmer, 48.
At least 50 others were injured before Masood was fatally shot.
Edge Hill University’s vice chancellor John Cater said there was a “quiet and sombre” mood on the West Lancashire campus following the attack.
Students on campus accessed counselling services following the attack, and Mr Cater said the events that unfolded on Westminster Bridge will stay with the students involved forever: “This is not something that will go away when they come back, this is something that will live with them over a longer period of time.”
The students were led by lecturer Paula Keaveney who was kept in the House of Commons lockdown when her students were targeted on the bridge.
The vice chancellor said: “There was a period where Paula was still in parliament, in the building, when the students were on Westminster Bridge.
“Within one hour we had managed to contact all 13 students, the member of staff plus parents.”
MP Cooper said her thoughts and prayers went out to those who lost their lives and their families “who will mourn their loss to such a senseless act of evil.”
She also said she would never forget the sacrifice of PC Keith Palmer and his “incredible act of bravery in tackling the terrorist attacker.”
The West Lancashire MP was in the Commons chamber throughout the hours that Parliament was in lockdown.
She said: “After 40 years of public service I can say that Wednesday, 22 March, 2017 will be a day I will never forget.”