PC Keith Palmer remembered in minute's silence after London attack
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Version 0 of 2. For all the understandable insistence that parliament and London would continue as normal after Wednesday’s terrorist attack, almost 24 hours later a large section of streets around the area remained sealed off by police. The cordon, enclosing Westminster Bridge and the roads around Parliament Square, meant the only floral tributes to those who died was a few bouquets left outside the new Metropolitan police headquarters, just outside the barriers on the Embankment. Several bunches of roses had been placed against the stone wall, beneath the carved name of the force in which PC Keith Palmer, stabbed to death by the attacker, had served. At the other end of the building is the Met’s “eternal flame”, which commemorates officers who have died in the course of their duties. It was outside here on Thursday morning that senior Met officers gathered for a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack, beginning at 9.33am – chosen as it was Palmer’s shoulder number. The service, attended by Cressida Dick, the incoming Met commissioner, Craig Mackey, the acting commissioner, and other officers, listened to a prayer read by the force’s chaplain, Rev Jonathan Osborne. The building, which replaces the now-sold former New Scotland Yard headquarters on the other side of Westminster, was due to be formally opened on Thursday by the Queen, but the ceremony was cancelled. Speaking after the silence was completed, Mackey thanked everyone for attending the service to remember Palmer “and everybody affected by yesterday’s terrible events in London”. “The support of Londoners and this wonderful community ensures that we can do the job we are entrusted to do within keeping London safe,” he said, calling for the public’s help to combat such events. “The work we have done over many years practising and exercising for scenarios like yesterday has helped. But nothing prepares people and nothing prepares family for the reality of what occurred yesterday.” MPs observed the silence too at the start of their day’s business in the Commons, as did many others elsewhere. The road closures caused traffic to crawl at a near-standstill on both sides of the river, while Westminster station, the entrances to which are inside the area still being combed by police investigating the attack, remained closed. Just beyond the cordon, everyday life in one of the capital’s busiest areas for tourism and other commerce continued as best it could, with the addition of TV news crews gathered as close as possible to the scene, mainly by Lambeth Bridge, to the west of parliament, and just over the river on the South Bank. On the south side a handful of the capital’s tourist sites remained closed for the morning, notably the London Eye observation wheel. Staff were telling visitors that it was hoped the attraction would reopen within a few hours – which it did – and to return them. “It’s disappointing, but I understand,” said one Spanish woman who was turned away with her family, asking to not be named. “There are bigger things happening.” Asked if it put her off visiting London again, she replied: “Why? It could happen anywhere. This is the modern world.” Surveying the massed news crews on the south side of Westminster Bridge outside the plush hotel that stands in the centre of the traffic roundabout there, one British couple from outside London said they were checking out a day early. “We had a room overlooking the bridge and Parliament, which was lovely,” said the woman, also asking to not be identified. “But then yesterday it just looked out over what had happened.” But again they insisted this would not put them off returning, or prompt undue concern about the man’s daughter, who lives in London. “Of course, I was worried for her when the attack happened,” he said. “But you have to put it into context. More people die on the roads every day. There’s no point letting it change the way you live.” |