After a deadly attack that left at least four dead and 27 injured, London is returning to normal.
Kyle Greenham
Kicker
Just one day after a terrorist attack struck at the heart of London, Michael Guy says calm has replaced chaos.
“The overwhelming impression was one of normality, in fact.”
Just 24 hours before, things were very different.
A car driving across Westminster Bridge hit several people, including three police officers. When the car crashed near the British parliament buildings, a man armed with a knife exited the vehicle and continued the attack – attempting to enter parliament. After stabbing an officer to death, he was shot dead by police. The attack left four dead and at least 27 injured.
“I ride a bicycle to and from work, I rode my bike home just a couple hours after this took place, and I was just a couple hundred yards from Parliament Square, and right around Buckingham Palace,” Guy said. “It was a little bit quieter, but there was almost a sense of calm about the place, it was really quite extraordinary. There were armed police on the street. That was about the only thing that was any different for me.”
Guy works as an investment banker only a few hundred yards from where the attack took place. When the sirens and helicopters became more numerous, he knew something very serious was taking place.
“It was clear something was going on, it’s not unusual for us to hear a couple (of) sirens from time to time. But there was clearly an awful lot,” Guy said. “London is just a busy place. For us, the principle thing was helicopter activity, a lot of sirens and helicopters.”
Despite the panic ensuing not far from his office, he and his co-workers remained calm through the course of the event.
“It’s quite an interesting thing. There we were, we absolutely knew what was happening. We were finding out what was happening the same way the rest of the world was,” said Guy.
Police currently believe there was only one attacker, Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old British-born man. He had been previously investigated for extremist links. As of Thursday, eight people have been arrested in relation to the attack.
Police officer Keith Palmer was on duty protecting parliament when the attacker attempted to enter the building. Despite being unarmed, he attempted to stop the attacker at the building’s gate where he was stabbed to death. Palmer was a husband and father, and had worked as a police officer for 15 years.
Parliament resumed Thursday morning.
