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Police Officer Killed In Westminster Terror Attack Hailed A Hero

Police Officer Killed In Westminster Terror Attack Hailed A Hero

This is PC Keith Palmer, the police officer who was killed at Westminster, a 48-year-old husband and father. He is being hailed a hero.

PA Wire/PA Images

Scotland Yard tonight confirmed five people are dead, including the attacker and PC Palmer, after the terrorist attacks on the Houses Of Parliament. The officer was unarmed.

Three others were killed during a car rampage on Westminster Bridge by the attacker, which also left at least 40 people injured. Witnesses reported the officer being attacked with a knife. Two were spotted at the scene.

PA

MPs, who were held inside Parliament in the aftermath of the attack, tonight hailed PC Palmer as a hero.

The fatally wounded policeman was named by Scotland Yard’s top anti-terror officer Mark Rowley on Wednesday night. Paying tribute to PC Palmer, Rowley said:

“He was someone who left for work today expecting to return home at the end of his shift - and he had every right to expect that would happen.”

The police statement came as the Prime Minister condemned the ‘sick and depraved attack’ and hailed the bravery of the police and security services.

Theresa May, who was in Parliament at the time of the attack, said any attempt to defeat the values that Parliament stood for was ‘doomed to failure’.

Scotland Yard said the attack in Westminster was being treated “as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise”.

Witness Rick Longley told the Press Association that he saw the attacker stab a policeman outside Parliament. He said:

“We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out.

“They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.

“A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman.

“I have never seen anything like that. I just can’t believe what I just saw.”

Another eye-witness told The Huffington Post UK that the suspected assailant appeared to attack a police officer who fell to the ground.

Shots were then fired and the assailant fell to the ground as he tried to get out of New Palace Yard, the witness said.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood attempted to save the policeman’s life by giving him mouth-to-mouth.

Ellwood - a former soldier and foreign minister - remained with the injured officer until an air ambulance arrived, and was later seen with bloodied hands.

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