Death Toll Rises to 5 in Westminster Attack – Metropolitan Police
London, 24 Jumadil Akhir 1438/23 March 2017 (MINA) – Five people, including an attacker and a police officer, were killed and 40 others injured in the attack in Westminster near the British Parliament on Wednesday.
Three people were run over and got killed when the attacker plowed his large vehicle into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge, said Mark Rowley – the Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations in the Metropolitan Police in a night update.
After the crash, the assailant left the vehicle, rushed to the Palace of Westminster, fatally stabbed a police officer guarding the building and injured three other police officers.
The police officer’s colleagues shot dead the attacker, Rowley said, noting that a woman jumped over the bridge into River Thames.
“Looking forward, people of London will see extra police officers on our streets, and we could call on the support of military,” Rowley added.
He affirmed that the police know the assailant well but he declined to reveal his identity.
Eiffel Tower blackout
From Paris, KUNA reported that Paris Mayor Annie Hidalgo has ordered a blackout of the world-famous Eiffel Tower monument here at midnight, local time, as a sign of solidarity with Britain in the wake of the deadly attack in London.
The City Hall said in a statement that the usually illuminated Eiffel Tower, which is a beacon on the Paris skyline, would extinguish its lights at 23:00 GMT to show “solidarity” with Britain and the victims of the attack.
Hidalgo earlier expressed her attachment to the links between Paris and London which she said shared democratic values and a love of freedom.
Three French school-children were among the 20 injured in the attack by an apparent “lone wolf” assailant who was a British national turned Islamist extremist and was known to security services for his provocative and violent rhetoric.
France is sending a government plane to London with relatives of the injured French children. (T/RS5/RS1)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
