“We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a vehicle and took some pedestrians out”, he said.
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Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Rowley, the Met Police’s senior anti-terror officer, confirmed that two members of the public were fatally injured and PC Keith Palmer, a member of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Squad, was killed during the attack.
Mrs May praised the “exceptional bravery” of police during the attack and said any attempt to defeat the values that Parliament stands for are “doomed to failure”.
Retiree Wendy Scott was among the hundreds of people who came to Trafalgar Square to express her solidarity with victims of the attack. The casualties included 12 Britons, four South Koreans, three French children, two Romanians, two Greeks, one German, one Pole, one Chinese and one American, May said. Two other people also remain in critical condition, one with life-threatening injuries.
Police said the United Kingdom -born Masood, who authorities shot and killed amid his attack, was not under active investigation and that they had “no prior intelligence” that pointed to him launching a terrorist attack.
In her address to Parliament, May said the suspect was known to MI5, the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency.
Police warned people to avoid the areas around Westminster including Whitehall – where the government departments reside – Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge, Victoria Street up to the junction with Broadway and the Victoria Embankment up to Embankment tube.
Parliament will hold a minute’s silence at 09:33 and the Prime Minister will give a statement at 10:30, with the Defence Secretary answering questions soon after.
A police officer reaches out to floral tributes in Westminster the day after the attack in London.
Parliament reopened early Thursday, in a show of defiance.
Masood, aged 52, was born in Kent – detectives believe he was most reccently living in the West Midlands.
One of the first things that Malaysians in London did upon hearing of the Westminster Palace attack was to check on one another to make sure no one was harmed.
However, he was “not part of the current intelligence picture”, May told MPs.
Rick Longley told the Press Association that he saw a man stab a policeman outside Parliament.
“He was a nice guy. As I speak, millions will be boarding trains and airplanes to travel to London, and to see for themselves the greatest city on Earth”.
According to the New York Times, the attack is the most significant to strike London since bombings targeted the Underground in July 2005, more than a decade ago. He declined to say where May was when the attack took place.
In 2013, two Islamic extremists killed soldier Lee Rigby on a London street by hitting him with a auto before attempting to behead him.
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The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attacks on Thursday, saying one of its “soldiers” had carried it out.
