Westminster terror attack: Police name attacker as 52-year-old Khalid Masood

Police officers speak as they prepare to reopen Westminster Bridge Thursday, March 23, 2017, following an attack on Wednesday when a man drove a car into pedestrians then stabbed a police officer to death before being fatally shot by police within Parliament’s grounds. The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said Thursday that the person who carried out the “attack in front of the British parliament in London was a soldier of the Islamic State.” (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)

The Metropolitan Police on Thursday revealed the identity of man who carried out an attack outside the British Parliament on Wednesday. According to the police, the attacker, who was shot dead by the police, was 52-year-old Khalid Masood. Earlier, while addressing the UK Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Theresa May had said that the attacker was a British-born who was already on radar of security forces for concerns regarding his extremist tendencies.

Masood had rammed his car into pedestrians on Westminster bridge on Wednesday injuring several people and later stabbed a police officer outside the British Parliament as he tried to enter the building. Masood was shot dead by the security forces outside the Parliament building.

Four people, including one policeman and the attacker, lost their lives in the incident. The terror group, Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter on Thursday and expressed his support for the people of Britain.

Meanwhile, UK PM Theresa May, terming it as an attack on free people everywhere, informed Parliament that those injured in the incident included people belonging to ten different nationalities.

She also added that the security arrangements in United Kingdom will be tightened with more policemen on the street to ensure that such attacks can be avoided.