Westminster attack: PC Keith Palmer named as police officer killed – as it happened

We are closing this live blog now, but live coverage continues here:

23 Mar 201701.52 EDT

Summary

Claire Phipps

Parliament will resume a few hours from now following Wednesday’s terrorist attack in the capital.

Here is what we now know:

• Five people are now confirmed to have died in the attack on Westminster on Wednesday: one police officer, three members of the public, and the attacker.
• The police officer has been named as PC Keith Palmer, 48, a member of the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, with 15 years’ service in the force. He was unarmed.
• Metropolitan police acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowleysaid Palmer was a husband and father:

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 other victims of the attack, and the assailant, have not yet been named.
• Police said 40 other people were injured; many remain in hospital, some in a serious condition.
• Five South Korean tourists, four students from Ormskirk’s Edge Hill University, and a German woman resident in Australia have been identified as among the wounded.
• Investigators say they believe they know the identity of the attacker, and that he is thought to have acted alone but was “inspired by international terrorism”.
• The House of Commons will sit this morning, with prime ministerTheresa May saying the country would not be cowed:

Parliament will meet as normal. We will come together as normal.

And Londoners – and others from around the world who have come here to visit this great city – will get up and go about their day as normal.

They will board their trains, they will leave their hotels, they will walk these streets, they will live their lives. And we will all move forward together. Never giving in to terror. And never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.

• The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, echoed her comments, saying:

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.

• UK foreign minister Boris Johnson, who is in the US for an international meeting discussing the Isis threat, said:

Heartbreaking. This is not the first attack on London or our Parliament - and won’t be the last - but our values will prevail.

• The terror threat level for the UK remains unchanged, at “severe”. The Metropolitan police said extra patrols, armed and unarmed, would be in place, “particularly in crowded places and iconic locations”.
  
• The Queen has postponed a planned visit to Scotland Yard that was due to take place today.
• Roads around Parliament Square remain closed, as does Westminster Bridge, as police investigations continue.
• Overnight, a police raid took place in the southwest of Birmingham. It is not clear if it is connected to the attack in London.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, has offered his condolences:

A terrorist attack has occurred in the United Kingdom. I offer my deepest condolences to the victims and extend my sympathy to all those who were wounded.

Terrorism is absolutely intolerable. Japan stands in solidarity with Prime Minister May of the United Kingdom, as well as with its people during this difficult time.

Prime Minister May has conveyed the message that the United Kingdom is firm in the fight against terrorism. Japan offers its full support to Prime Minister May and will combat terrorism in cooperation with the international community.

El País: Terrorism forces world’s first parliament to close

Gulf News: Car rampage, knife attack jolt London

De Morgen: Terror is back in London

Wall Street Journal: London rampage leaves 4 dead

23 Mar 201701.17 EDT

Jason Burke

The attack outside the Houses of Parliament in London is the latest in a series of terrorist atrocities involving a vehicle being driven at speed into pedestrians – a tactic actively promoted by Islamic State.

In December, a man whose asylum claim had been rejected by Germany drove a truck into a market in Berlin, killing 12. Last July a stolen truck driven through a Bastille Day parade in Nice killed 86. The strikes appear inspired, if not actively commissioned, by Isis in Iraq and Syria.

In November a student used a vehicle and knives to injure 13 on a campus in Ohio, in the US. His motives and allegiance are less clear.

Such attacks are not unprecedented, but have become much more numerous in recent years.

In 2014 the chief spokesman of the group, Mohammed al-Adnani, issued a call for sympathisers in the west to strike “unbelievers”, especially police officers or soldiers, where they were – rather than travel to the middle east to fight there.

“If you are not able to find a bomb or a bullet, then smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him,” he said.

Though al-Adnani, who was killed in 2016, pointed a finger specifically at France, where there were two vehicle attacks in 2014, he also cited the UK among preferred targets.

This section of the live blog was amended on 23 March 2017 to clarify a reference to the Berlin truck attacker.

The brother of a British aid worker murdered by Isis in Syria has appealed for calm in the wake of the Westminster attack, Press Association reports:

David Haines was beheaded in Syria three years ago by the group after being held prisoner for 18 months.

His elder brother Mike, who works with groups to combat extremist indoctrination of young people in the UK, said it was “vital” that communities “remain calm and united”, regardless of the motive.

Mike Haines said: “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims of this tragic attack in the heart of our nation’s capital.

“In the midst of the hurt and heartache that we are all feeling in this moment, it is vital that we as a society remain calm and united, no matter who or what was behind this attack.

“Terrorism, in all its guises, seeks to spread fear and divide us. In confronting this evil, we must stand shoulder to shoulder, with confidence that we are all stronger when we stand together.

“The reports of kindness and solidarity amongst those on the scene, proves our togetherness.

“Whatever the motivations, they will not succeed in sewing distrust amongst us – I have seen first hand that we are stronger than that.”

It’s still early in London but pre-dawn travellers are still being advised to avoid the Westminster area:

BBC Newsnight reported late on Wednesday evening that the car used in the attack could have been rented in Birmingham. The Guardian has not been able to verify this report.

West Midlands police – according to a statement cited by the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and others – has said of the raid that saw a road in southwest Birmingham closed for around two hours overnight:

There is an ongoing police operation, no further details are being given at this stage.

WMP referred media enquiries to the Metropolitan police in London, which said it would not be commenting for “operational reasons”.

23 Mar 201723.54 EDT

Elle Hunt

Londoners have expressed defiance after the terrorist attack at Westminster, sharing messages of solidarity on social media.

#WeAreNotAfraid was trending in London as users reacted to the deaths of five people, including the attacker, on Wednesday and expressed gratitude and support for the work of emergency services.

Comedian and actor Margaret Cabourn-Smith characterised this tenor of the response, tweeting: “#WeAreNotAfraid Or rather I am; but I’m damned if I’m going to let that stop me doing anything differently.

“I’m a bladdy Londoner.”

A police raid has taken place in the early hours of Thursday morning in Birmingham, where Hagley Road in the southwest of the city was cordoned off for a while.

At this point it is not clear whether this is in any way related to the attack in London. I’ll have more details here if they emerge.

The lights of the landmark in Paris were turned off at midnight as a mark of respect for the victims of Wednesday’s terror attack in Westminster.

ABC’s Leigh Sales reports that the Australian permanent resident caught up in the Westminster attack is being treated for injuries sustained when the attacker’s car ran over her foot.

She is originally from Germany but now lives in South Australia.

Malcolm Turnbull and Australian Labor leader Bill Shorten are offering condolences to the UK in the Canberra parliament now, with the British High Commissioner Menna Rawlings looking on.

Turnbull said:

As prime minister Theresa May said earlier this morning, the values of the British parliament command the admiration and respect of free people everywhere. And so they do because they are our values too. We stand, all of us, with the UK. Comforted that we share those values. They’re ours. Freedom of speech, democracy, the rule of law. We will never give in to terror.

He said of British MP Tobias Ellwood, who assisted attempts to resuscitate the police officer, PC Keith Palmer, who was fatally stabbed:

This act of heroism is just one of the extraordinary stories that are emerging from this tragedy.

Shorten paid tribute to Palmer:

The murder of the Metropolitan police officer reminds us of the risks our security agencies take on our behalf to keep us safe. And on behalf of all honourable members I want to acknowledge and thank our Australian federal police and the parliamentary security officers for whom this news must strike a particular chord.

(Thanks to my colleague Gabrielle Chan on the Australian politics live blog for the quotes.)

Australia’s attorney general, George Brandis, has said “an Australian permanent resident” was injured in the attack in Westminster and is in hospital.

Consular staff in London are offering the woman assistance, he said.

He added:

We stand in solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom.

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the injured person lives in South Australia.

Thursday’s Guardian editorial calls for solidarity in the wake of the terror attack on Westminster and pays tribute to the officers who intervened:

The security forces and police have planned for what they call a “marauding attack” for years. The awful choreography of the response to terror was fast and well-rehearsed. The police officer who later died of his injuries stopped the attacker at the gates off Parliament Square. Before the man had gone a pace or two further, he himself was shot by an armed officer. These two courageous interventions almost certainly saved scores of lives in a busy area thronged with politicians, visitors and some of the hundreds of staff who work in the palace.

There will be many questions to ask in the coming days about what was known of the attacker and his associates, but for now, there can only be a wholehearted appreciation of the professionalism with which the police did their job.