7 Arrested After London Attack

PM denounces 'sick and depraved' attack
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 23, 2017 4:03 AM CDT
7 Arrested After London Attack
A forensics tent on Westminster Bridge is seen from Victoria Embankment in London.   (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

Police in Britain say they believe the man behind London's deadliest terror attack since 2005 "acted alone and was inspired by international terrorism"—though they've also arrested seven people around the country in connection with the attack. London police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said Thursday that hundreds of police officers worked through the night and raided six addresses, the BBC reports. He revised the death toll from the attack from five to four, including the attacker, who was shot dead by police after mowing down dozens of pedestrians on a bridge in his vehicle and fatally stabbing a police officer on the ground of Parliament. The latest developments:

  • Prime Minister Theresa May, who was rushed away from Parliament during the attack, issued a statement Wednesday night denouncing "the sick and depraved terrorist attack on the streets of our capital," the New York Times reports. She said the full details of the attack are still emerging.
  • Police haven't disclosed the identity of the attacker, though they say he was already known to authorities, CNN reports. Rowley said the attack appears to have been "Islamist-related terrorism."

  • Rowley said 29 people injured in the attack are still in the hospital, seven of them in critical condition, Reuters reports. He did not confirm the nationalities of the dead, but he said the two members of the public killed were a woman in her mid-40s and a man in his mid-50s.
  • The AP reports that a doctor who treated some of the people hit on the bridge by the attacker's Hyundai SUV said some received "catastrophic" injuries. The victims include three police officers, five South Korean tourists, and three French teenagers who were on a school trip.
  • May said Parliament will resume as normal Thursday and she plans to deliver an address in the House of Commons, reports the Washington Post.
  • The Telegraph, which has a reconstruction of the attack, reports that according to members of Parliament, the attacker entered the grounds through a well-known "weak spot"—a vehicle gate usually left unlocked and slightly ajar. Witnesses say the attacker plunged a knife into an unarmed police officer before another officer shot him dead.
  • The Guardian reports that lawmakers have returned to work. MP Jess Phillips says attending parliamentary debates as normal is a way to honor the sacrifice made by murdered police officer Keith Palmer.
(More London stories.)

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