2017 Westminster attack

2017 Westminster attack
Westminster Bridge, Bridge Street and the Palace of Westminster, the main locations where the attack took place
Location	Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′03″N 0°07′19″W
Date	22 March 2017 14:40 (UTC)
Attack type	Vehicle-ramming attack Stabbing
Weapons	Hyundai Tucson Knife
Deaths	5 (3 pedestrians, 1 police officer and the perpetrator)
Injured	50 (4 critical, 2 others life-threatening)
Perpetrator	Khalid Masood

On 22 March 2017 a terrorist attack in London began on Westminster Bridge, and continued into Parliament Square and the grounds of the Palace of Westminster. The attacker, identified as 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood (born Adrian Michael Elms), drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, resulting in more than 50 people being injured, three of them fatally. After the car crashed into the perimeter fence of the Palace grounds, he abandoned it and ran into New Palace Yard where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. Masood was then shot by another police officer and died of his injuries at the scene. The entire attack lasted 82 seconds.

Background

See also: Terrorism in the United Kingdom

Prior to the attack, the UK Threat Level for terrorism in the country was listed at "severe", meaning an attack was "highly likely". There had not been a terrorist incident at the Palace of Westminster since the assassination of Airey Neave in 1979, which also took place in New Palace Yard, during the Northern Ireland conflict.

The last attack to have caused multiple casualties on the UK mainland had been the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Since then, two other murders have characterized by authorities as terrorism: those of Lee Rigby in an Islamist attack in May 2013, and of Jo Cox by a far-right extremist in June 2016. According to Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, thirteen plots have been foiled by the authorities since 2013.

Attack

Each stage of the attack and Masood's route through Westminster

At 14:40 local time (and UTC) on 22 March 2017, a grey Hyundai Tucson was driven at around 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) into pedestrians along the pavement on the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, causing multiple casualties. The car used was hired from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Spring Hill, Birmingham during the week prior to the incident.

One of the victims fell or was thrown by the car's impact over the parapet of the bridge into the River Thames below. She was rescued by the crew of a City Cruises boat and was brought aboard a London Fire Brigade boat, having being knocked unconscious and sustained severe injuries. The car continued, and crashed into railings on Bridge Street at the north perimeter of the Palace of Westminster.

Masood, wearing black clothes, got out of the car and ran around the corner into Parliament Square and through the Carriage Gates of New Palace Yard, part of the Palace grounds, where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer, PC Keith Palmer. Sitting in a car nearby was a Metropolitan Police close protection officer for the Secretary of State for Defence, Sir Michael Fallon. Witnessing the stabbing, the officer ran towards the scene and shot Masood several times. The entire attack, from start to finish, lasted only 82 seconds.

Despite attempts to resuscitate him, Masood died at the scene. Passers-by including Tobias Ellwood MP, Foreign Minister for the Middle East and Africa, and medics attempted to revive PC Palmer, also without success. Although PC Palmer was wearing a protective vest, it did not save him.

New Palace Yard, where the knife attack and shooting took place

As this was happening, Prime Minister Theresa May, who was in the Commons for a vote, was evacuated by her security team, in the Prime Ministerial car, and taken to 10 Downing Street.

Immediate aftermath

Shortly after the incident, additional armed police officers arrived. An air ambulance from London HEMS attended the scene. Parliament was suspended and MPs remained in the Commons debating chamber as a precaution. Parliamentary staff were told to remain in their offices, and visitors to Parliament, including journalists and children on school trips, were ordered to remain in the building. Some were later evacuated to Westminster Abbey. The Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales also suspended their proceedings on the afternoon of 22 March.

The UK government's emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBRA) committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, met in response to the attack. It was decided there was no need for the threat level to be raised as a result of the attack.

Casualties

Reported casualties by nationality

Nationality	Dead	Injured
British	4	12
American	1	1
Australian	0	1
Chinese	0	1
French	0	3
Greek	0	2
Italian	0	2
Irish	0	1
Polish	0	1
Portuguese	0	1
Romanian	0	2
South Korean	0	5
Not yet confirmed	0	18
Total	5	50

Five people, including the perpetrator, died as a result of the incident, and around 50 others were injured, some of them severely. Of the four people killed by the perpetrator, three were British nationals. Aysha Frade, a British teacher, believed to have been walking along the bridge to pick up her children from school, was struck by the perpetrator's car and killed. A tourist from the United States, Kurt Cochran, was also hit by the car and died. The dead police officer was PC Keith Palmer, 48, an unarmed police officer who was on duty with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection command. Palmer had 15 years of experience in the Metropolitan Police Service. The fourth victim was Leslie Rhodes, 75, from Clapham in south-west London, who was hit by the car and later died in hospital after his life support was switched off.

A dozen people received serious injuries, some described as "catastrophic", and eight others were treated for less serious injuries at the scene. Injured members of the public were taken to St Thomas' Hospital, which is located immediately across Westminster Bridge in Lambeth, and to King's College Hospital (which declared a 'major incident' in its designated trauma centre), St Mary's Hospital, the Royal London Hospital and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Two Romanian citizens were injured, one of whom had to be rescued from the River Thames after being thrown from the bridge by the car of the attacker, and was injured severely. A group of French students aged 15–16, from Concarneau in Brittany, were among those injured. Others included three police officers who were returning from a commendation ceremony, four students from Edge Hill University in Lancashire, and the deceased American's wife.

Attacker

Main article: Khalid Masood

The attacker was identified by the Metropolitan Police as 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood. He was born Adrian Russell Elms, later changed to Adrian Russell Ajao, when he took the name of his step-father. Some media reports have suggested that he underwent conversion to Islam while in prison, after which he changed his name to Khalid Masood, though police have said he also used several other aliases, including Khalid Choudry.

Born in Kent, Masood was initially brought up in Rye, East Sussex and later attended secondary school in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Most recently he was living in the West Midlands. When he was 16 he dropped out of school and by 18 he was taking drugs and was described as a "heavy cocaine" user. In 2000 he was sentenced to two years in prison for grievous bodily harm after a knife attack in a public house in Northiam in Sussex. In 2003 he was sentenced to a further six months in prison for possession of an offensive weapon following another knife attack in Eastbourne in Sussex. As well as these two prison convictions, Masood had public order offences going back to 1983.

A British newspaper obtained a CV of Masood's in which he described himself as having been a teacher of English in Saudi Arabia between November 2005 and November 2006 teaching in Jeddah. He was reported to have returned again from April 2008 to April 2009 in Jubail. He was believed to have also made a trip to Saudi Arabia for a religous pilgirmagage. After this, according to the CV he returned to the United Kingdom and worked at a TEFL college in Luton.

Although he had been previously investigated by MI5, Scotland Yard said that Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack. He had not been convicted of any terrorism offences. Pictures of Masood being treated by medics were shown by some news outlets.

Masood spent the night before the attack at the Preston Park Hotel in Brighton in Sussex and was described as "laughing and joking" by the manager there. Masood was believed to have a partner that might have helped him in the attack, a 39-year old woman Rohey Hydara.

Motive

The motivation for the attack was suspected by the police to be Islamic extremism, although Home Secretary Amber Rudd cast doubt over whether Masood was formally affiliated with ISIL. On 23 March, ISIL's unofficial news channel, Amaq News Agency, announced that the attacker was "a soldier of the Islamic State, executing the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations". Analysts monitoring the group online said the claim appears to be an effort to disguise ISIL's losses in Iraq and Syria, adding that the lack of biographical information of the attacker and lack of specifics about the attack suggested it was not directly involved.

Scotland Yard stated that it was investigating whether he was a lone wolf and inspired by terrorist propaganda or was being directed by others. On 25 March Neil Basu, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, announced that investigators believed that the perpetrator had acted alone, adding that, "We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this".

Early reports

Some early reports gave descriptions of two supposed attackers, one described as a "bald white man" and another as a "black man with goatee beard"; however, Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, dismissed these claims, saying that the attack was a lone wolf attack. Abu Izzadeen was also erroneously identified as the attacker on social media, Channel 4 News and The Independent shortly after the attack; Izzadeen was actually in prison at the time.

Investigation

Police and media outside the Hagley Road premises that were raided on 22 March, seen on the morning following the raid

At 23:00 on 22 March, West Midlands Police raided a flat in Hagley Road, Birmingham. By the morning of 23 March, six locations in East London and Birmingham had been raided resulting in the arrests of eight people on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. Officials also carried out searches in London, Brighton and Carmarthenshire. The investigation is named Operation Classific. By 24 March, three further arrests had taken place in the West Midlands, the North West of England and in Manchester. A woman, arrested earlier in East London, was released on bail. Later on 24 March, seven of those initially arrested were released without further action and another woman from Manchester was released on bail. By 25 March, only one man from Birmingham remained in custody and the woman on bail from East London had been removed from police enquiries. Over the course of investigation, 2,700 items have been seized and 3,500 witnesses have been contacted.

Reactions

The various reactions to the terrorist attack in England, both domestic and international, expressed shock and outrage, and it has been considered as an attack against liberty, freedom of speech, and democracy.

Domestic

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

Those evil and twisted individuals who try to destroy our shared way of life will never succeed and we condemn them. ... London is a great city, full of amazing people from all backgrounds. And when Londoners face adversity we always pull together.

The first media and public briefing from the Metropolitan Police Service, provided by Commander Ben-Julian Harrington at New Scotland Yard following the attack

Flowers next to Westminster Palace, the day after the attack

The speakers of both Houses of Parliament issued a joint statement on the afternoon of the attack:

An extremely serious incident has occurred in the Westminster area this afternoon. The Metropolitan police is dealing with this and an investigation is under way. On behalf of members of both Houses of Parliament, we wish to offer our thoughts to all those affected and their families. We would also like to express our gratitude to the police and all emergency services.

The Scottish Parliament suspended the day's proceedings, including a debate on a second independence referendum. Some MSPs who opposed the decision to suspend parliament said that doing so was "giving in to terrorism".

Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords resumed their normal functions on 23 March, the day after the attack. A one-minute silence in honour of the dead was observed in Parliament, and by London's emergency services, at 9.33 am. The time was chosen as PC Palmer's collar number was 933.

Prime Minister Theresa May said to members of parliament:

Yesterday an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy, but today we meet as normal, as generations have done before us and as future generations will continue to do, to deliver a simple message: We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Opposition, described the attack as "an appalling atrocity".

On 23 March, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faith leaders met officers at Scotland Yard to discuss responses to the attack. The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the attack and offered thoughts and prayers to the victims, and several local mosques joined in the condemnation.

In honour of PC Palmer, his police uniform and shoulder number 4157U were permanently retired; Charlton Athletic F.C. announced that his season ticket seat at the Valley would not be occupied at the club's next home game, but would instead have a club scarf placed over it as a mark of respect. A JustGiving fund was set up, with the target of raising £100,000 for his family, a goal attained in less than 24 hours. A group called "Muslims United for London" also raised over £16,000 to support victims and victims' families, releasing a statement saying, "The British Muslim community stands with the community during these difficult times." Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that Keith Palmer would be remembered at the National Memorial Arboretum's UK Police Memorial in Staffordshire.

On 24 March, Prince Charles visited injured victims of the attack at King's College Hospital. Also on 24 March, Tobias Ellwood was appointed to the Privy Council for his role in rendering aid to PC Palmer, as was security minister Ben Wallace MP, who helped coordinate the government response.

International

In addition to the expressions of shock, support, solidarity and sympathy offered by several national governments, the United Nations Security Council observed a minute of silence at its morning meeting on 23 March. The attack was denounced by the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

On the evening of the attack, the Brandenburg Gate in Germany and Tel Aviv City Hall in Israel were illuminated with the Union Jack. At midnight that day, the Eiffel Tower's lights were switched off to honour those killed in the London attack. On 23 March, Jean-Marc Ayrault, France's Minister of Foreign Affairs, came to London, where he first visited the hospital where three French high school students injured in the attack were being treated and later attended the morning session in the House of Commons.

Some followers of ISIL channels on social media reportedly celebrated the attack as revenge for British airstrikes against the group in Syria and Iraq.

See also

• List of British police officers killed in the line of duty
• List of terrorist incidents in London
• List of terrorist incidents in March 2017
• Vehicle-ramming attack

External links

• Live reports at BBC News