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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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Very sad. I’ve often visited this Camphill community centre and it was a beautiful place for residents to live with land, animals, gardens and buildings. Lots of young Europeans volunteering years of their lives to provide an alternative option for living to people who would otherwise spend their lives in dull institutions having their senses dulled by chemical restraint.
Don’t think transferring it to the HSE will make it any better, with their record on mental health facilities .
I too have visited Camphill Ballytobin, and was really impressed by the interaction between staff and residents. What better way to live for people with disabilities, than being to assist in food production and crafting, and being at one with nature, while being allowed to progress at their own pace. Far better than being locked up in an institution. Let’s hope this isn’t another bureaucratic exercise by Hiqua! The HSE’s past record in looking after those with disabilities, leaves a lot to be desired.
The Camphill model was such a nice one. This is very sad to read indeed.
Hopefully these services can be brought up to an appropriate standard and continue to operate . We need to protect the most vulnerable as are many of the people attending these services .
Staff and managers running these services have a responsibility too plus resources from Government and HSE let’s hope it’s a move for better in relation to the lives of the people using the service.
I just cannot trust this government or the welfare of the disadvantaged it’s responsible for.
Budgets come before welfare. They seem to be able to find reasons to, in this case, stop a well run, people orientated, facility for the disabled, and hand it over to the HSE, an organisation that’s nothing else but a gravy train for the execs and managers.
Only time will tell.
Does anyone know why volunteers are no longer allowed because HSE are taking over? I can’t understand why HIQA keep handing over these centres to the HSE when there is a clear record of HSE running such places into the ground, feel so distressed reading this.
have your say