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Updated 3.30pm
THREE PEOPLE WERE killed in the terror attack outside Britain’s parliament yesterday: a woman picking up her children from school, a man from Utah, and an unarmed police officer.
Westminster Bridge, where the attacker rammed down pedestrians before stabbing a police officer, is a busy tourist spot with its views of parliament’s Big Ben clock tower, and the injured included many foreigners.
Here is what we know about the victims so far.
‘Hero’ police officer
Unarmed police officer Keith Palmer, who was fatally stabbed as he stood guard at an entrance to parliament, has been hailed as a hero.
The 48-year-old husband and father had been a police officer for 15 years and was part of the parliamentary protection force.
Prime Minister Theresa May called him “every inch a hero”.
He previously served in the British army alongside James Cleverly, now a Conservative MP, who tweeted: “A lovely man, a friend. I’m heartbroken.”
Cleverly paid an emotional tribute to Palmer in the House of Commons and asked that he receive a posthumous award for his actions.
Scotland Yard’s top amt-terrorism officer and deputy commissioner Mark Rowley yesterday paid tribute to Palmer.
“Keith… was a husband and a father,” Rowley said in a statement.
He was someone who left for work today expecting to return home and the end of his shift and he had every right to expect that would happen.
Labour MP Barry Gardiner thanked Palmer for his service in protecting him and fellow MPs yesterday.
“As I go to sleep tonight it is with profound thanks to PC Keith Palmer & all our security officers. And profound sorrow for all the victims,” he tweeted.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said that Palmer “personifies the brave men and women of our police and emergency services”.
“Keith Palmer was killed while bravely doing his duty – protecting our city and the heart of our democracy from those who want to destroy our way of life,” said Khan.
My heart goes out to his family, friends and colleagues.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband also paid tribute to Palmer, expressing his condolences with his family.
“We all mourn for PC Keith Palmer and send the deepest condolences to his family. He died protecting all of us at Westminster,” he wrote.
As a tribute, Charlton Athletic football club placed a scarf in its red and white colours on Seat 166 of its stadium, which Palmer held as a season ticket holder.
Mother-of-two
Colleagues of Aysha Frade, a mother who was run down and killed as she headed to pick up her children, said she was “loved” and would be “deeply missed”.
A Spanish diplomatic source confirmed to AFP that Frade was a 43-year-old British national whose mother was Spanish.
Media reports said her daughters were seven and nine years old.
Rachel Borland, principal of DLD College London where Frade worked in the administration team, said she was “highly regarded and loved by our students and by her colleagues”.
“She will be deeply missed by us,” she added.
Frade had family in the Spanish town of , in northwest Spain.
The mayor of the town Betanzos, Galiciawhere confirmed Frade’s death to the Guardian.
“The rumours that started going round last night are sadly true,” he told the Guardian.
I didn’t know her but she has two sisters who run an English school here and other relatives in the area. It’s a tragedy.
Man from Utah
Kurt Cochran from Utah in the United States has been named as the third victim.
The news was announced on Facebook by a Shantell Payne, an apparent relative of the victim’s wife Melissa Payne Cochran.
Cochran “could not overcome the injuries he received in the London terror attacks,” Payne wrote in her post.
“The pain is so heart-wrenching and raw it has rocked our family and all that knew him to its core.”
She said Cochran’s wife was also in hospital where she is recovering from a broken leg and rib and a cut on her head.
The BBC quoted Cochran’s father-in-law Clint Payne as saying: “Our family is heartbroken.”
The police said only that a man in his 50s had died.
Injured
Police said 29 of around 40 people wounded were treated in hospital. Seven remained in a “critical condition” today.
Three French pupils on a school trip to London, all of them aged 15 or 16, were among those hurt, including two who suffered broken bones but were not reported to be in life-threatening condition.
The teenagers are from a high school in Concarneau, in the western Brittany region, and were joined by their families yesterday evening. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault arrived in London today to visit them.
Five South Korean tourists – four women and a man in their 50s and 60s – were also wounded after being knocked to the ground by people fleeing as the assailant mowed down pedestrians, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
In an address to parliament today, Prime Minister Theresa May said that among the people admitted to hospital were 12 Britons as well as one German, one Pole, one Irish citizen, one Chinese national, one Italian, one American, two Greeks and two Romanians.
A woman with serious injuries rescued from the River Thames near Westminster Bridge after the attack, as well as her fiancé, are believed to be the two Romanians.
Local media in the eastern European country have named them as Andreea Cristea, a 29 year-old architect and Andrei Burnez. Authorities did not confirm the reports.
The injured also included three police officers who were returning from an event recognising their bravery, two of whom remain in serious condition.
Among the injured British nationals were four students from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk in northwest England who were on an educational visit to the parliament. Two of them were described as “walking wounded”.
© – AFP, 2017 Additional reporting by Cormac Fitzgerald
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A brave man – may he rest in peace
RIP So sad. Don’t let terrorism make you live in fear because that is what they want.
@Eoin Mulhern: fear and hate are their weapons.
islam should not have free reign on our society. People walking around on Islam egg shells.mainly because left wingers embrace it for some reason or other.
@Philip Brady: our society?
@Gareth: yes western society, a tolerant society , that’s been exploited.
@Philip Brady: left wing embracing islam? Are you sure? Just because some people want fairness in this world doesn’t mean they support terrorism. Thats just a big pile of BS!
@Dave Thomas: He never said they support Islam , they embrace it and protect it anything bad been said about it. People who lean toward the left are some of the unfairest people I have ever debated with, they can not leave their emotional ideology at the door in a debate, and resort to shaming tactics and non progressive means of communication. They can not look at both sides of an argument and come to a non bias conclusion. Liberalism is an inherently selfish ideology. It is, the worship of the self. Therefore any liberal idea or belief will be adopted primarily to serve the person who holds it.
@Ladude: bias conclusion
I’m really sickened over this.Theres no answer to this.To think that an unstable headcase sitting in his bedroom in front of a laptop being brainwashed by these Islamic hate videos to go out and attack innocent people is so so scary.
We in Ireland should not be be too complacent that it could never happen here.We are the infidel according to these extremists.
It is so hard to police this madness when these viscous thugs are working alone.
How can Muslims not understand that people have an absolute right to question their ideology of what the Koran “teaches”?
I don’t care if there are a billion Muslims in this world.No one and I mean no one has the right to take innocent lives like the way this thug did yesterday.And all he was,was a thug nothing get else.
Do Muslims look on him as a hero?
I haven’t seen huge condemnation from their communities.
If they want to live in a democratic multi religious society they must respect other people’s beliefs.
But sadly they do not and they wonder why people have reservations about them.
It’s time to step up our vigilance and be more alert as it could easily happen here.
@Gerry Fallon: Do you expect Muslims to apologise for a terrorist attack they has nothing to do with? 99% are law abiding and are sick of this just like the rest of us.
@Keelan O’neill: 23% of British Muslims said Islamic Sharia law should replace British law in areas with large Muslim populations….
@Gerry Fallon: The ira are a terrorist group so that makes all Christians terrorists by the same token then.
What a brave man may he rest in peace my thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time.
RIP
@gareth no article on the rebel assault on civilian shelters in Damascus yesterday either. No report on the 7 year old boy with the suicide vest saved by the Iraqi SF soldier in Mosul yesterday.The same Iraqi SF who are fighting along side with their American allies. No article on the Russian troops arriving on the Egypt – Libya border yesterday.Its almost like it’s a very complicated situation that can’t be wrapped up in a one line retort.
What is very simple however is if you were standing on Westminster bridge yesterday the attacker wouldn’t have drove around you and spared your life because you think America is the great evil one.He would of wiped you out and rejoiced in it.
A simple message of condolence or no comment at all would of been enough.
No article on the bombs America dropped in the Syrian school yesterday killing 33
@Gareth: Get out.
@Gavin: your just brain washed every life matters
@Gareth: Gareth if every life matters I hope you’re not using a mobile, there’s a mineral in that called coltan, which slaves dig for in Africa , in very harsh conditions…I hope you think of them every time you use your phone ?
May the victims Rest in Peace.
May the perpetrator rot in HELL.
@Tony Hartigan: I couldn’t have put it better myself
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