The intelligence agencies have been warning of such an attack almost since the London bombings in July 2005. As late as last November, the head of Britain’s domestic security agency, MI5, Andrew Parker, said unequivocally in an interview: “There will be terrorist attacks in this country.”
Even though they had known it would happen one day, there was soul-searching at MI5 headquarters, Thames House, just a 10-minute walk from the events at Westminster. They know they cannot stop every attack but there is still a sense of devastation when it happens.
There will be lots of soul-searching reviews to see whether there is anything they could have done to stop it. But the intelligence agencies have long warned that it is hard to prevent such lone-actor attacks.
Knowing that eventually someone would get through, Parker had a well-rehearsed plan in place and, as soon as word came through from the police that there had been an incident at Westminster, his teams began to swing into action and will be working through the night.
The security services, having established his identity, would have had to make sure that he was indeed working alone and not part of a network. The working assessment is that his actions were Islamic State-inspired.
Police have not yet identified the attacker, who died after being shot by an armed police officer within the Westminster security cordon.
The Guardian understands the initial working theories of the investigation are that the attacker was inspired by Isis and was most likely a “lone actor”.
Police have said they believe they know who he is and described him as “inspired by international terrorism”.
The front pages of Thursday’s papers have been published, with some focused on MP Tobias Ellwood’s unsuccessful fight to save the life of PC Keith Palmer, the unarmed police officer who rushed to confront the knife-wielding man; and others picturing the attacker himself.
The Sun pictured the attacker and the police officer, across a wrap-around front (we are not including here the back page, which shows the body of the dead officer):
It cites a tour agency official saying four “sustained light injuries, and another serious injury … They are now being treated at two hospitals.”
Yonhap says the seriously injured tourist has been identified as “a 67-year-old woman surnamed Park”. It says she is being treated at St Mary’s hospital, in Paddington, for a head injury sustained when she fell in the scramble to leave the bridge.
My colleague John Crace, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketchwriter, who works from our Westminster office, witnessed the death of PC Keith Palmer this afternoon.
He writes here of the shock of the attack:
The mind goes numb at times like these. A disconnect between brain and feeling. So it took me the best part of an hour to make sense of what I had seen. But the simple truth is this. Today I saw a man die. A police officer, someone I had almost certainly said “hello” to at some point over the years. Possibly even this morning …
Armed police officers ran to the scene. Some started tending to the bodies; others stood around. Another man came running out. I didn’t recognise him. None of us did, we must have all been in shock. It later turned out he was Tobias Ellwood, a junior foreign minister whom we had all seen countless times before.
Time stretched out as people began to do CPR on both bodies. Then after what felt like an age later, but can only have been a matter of minutes, there was the noise overhead of the air ambulance preparing to land in Parliament Square.
Several armed police officers ran from New Palace Yard to talk to three paramedics dressed in yellow. They bypassed the first body – the assailant – and went straight to work on the fallen policeman. The scene became more ordered, yet more urgent. They worked for several minutes, hoping for a miracle that never came.
“London is the greatest city in the world and we stand together in the face of those who seek to harm us and destroy our way of life,” the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said earlier. “Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.”
The lockdown of Westminster is over, police have confirmed.
Mark Rowley, acting deputy commissioner of the Met, said hundreds of officers would continue through the night in their work on the investigation into the attack:
We are forensically examining a complicated crime scene that covers a wide area, and as with all investigations of this nature it will take us some time to work through the painstaking work necessary to get all of the relevant evidence.
But parliament will reopen on Friday, with business in the chambers expected to resume. Several MPs have already stated their intention to return to Westminster in the morning.
Police have said some entrances to the parliamentary estate will be closed as they are part of the crime scene.
The terror threat level would stay the same – “severe” – Rowley confirmed, adding:
On a precautionary basis across the country we are stepping up police patrols – unarmed and armed – and the public will see far more of their local police forces over the forthcoming days, particularly in crowded places and iconic locations.
The Metropolitan police has confirmed that PC Keith Palmer was unarmed.
Acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley explained:
Our parliamentary protection team are a combination of armed and unarmed officers doing different roles, and sadly the officer who lost his life today was unarmed.
He was supported by armed colleagues who shot and killed the attacker.
[The attacker] tried to enter parliament and was stopped at the gate.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has sent his condolences to the family of PC Keith Palmer. In a statement issued on Facebook, Khan said:
Tonight we have learned that the courageous police officer who was killed while protecting our city was PC Keith Palmer. He was 48 and a husband and father.
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.
My heart goes out to his family, friends and colleagues.
He personifies the brave men and women of our police and emergency services who work around the clock to keep us safe – tonight all Londoners are grateful to them.
