Five confirmed dead, 40 injured in terror attack in London
By
Chris Marsden
23 March 2017
Two pedestrians, one police officer, the perpetrator of a terrorist act and a yet unidentified person are dead following a horrific attack outside the Houses of Parliament Wednesday afternoon.
At around 2:40 p.m., a man, who the police have now said is “known” to them, drove a grey-coloured 4×4 Hyundai i40 car at speed over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament. It mounted the pavement, leaving around 20 casualties lying on the bridge, veering across a cycle lane before crashing into parliament’s perimeter fencing surrounding New Palace Yard. One woman died on the bridge.
The assailant, who appeared to be in his 40s and dressed in black, jumped out of the car and proceeded to sprint through the New Palace Yard gates. He was reportedly armed with two knives including one with an eight-inch blade. When police officers confronted him, he stabbed a plain-clothes officer repeatedly before turning towards a second officer. He was shot several times and later died of his injuries. The stabbed officer, PC Keith Palmer, died of his wounds.
The first doctor on the scene was Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, the current chairman of the junior doctors’ committee at the British Medical Association. He tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate both the police officer and the assailant, the latter for almost an hour, as well as attending to other injured people at the scene.
The London Ambulance Service said paramedics had treated at least 10 people on the bridge.
Among the victims of the terror attack are three French schoolchildren on a school trip as well as students from the northwest of England. At least two of the teenage pupils from a private high school in Concarneau are in critical…