Xi offers condolences to British monarch after fatal terror attack

Flowers are laid at the scene after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London, Britain, March 22, 2017.  [Photo/Agencies]

The security services will now be tracking down all the assailant’s associates, all those he communicated with, the places he visited and his itinerary before getting to Parliament. Officials say they believe he acted alone but also want to find out if he was inspired by communications from abroad. They are particularly focused on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and different branches of al-Qaeda. ISIS, in particular, has encouraged their followers to use vehicles and knives to carry out independent attacks in Western countries.

The policeman who was killed was named as Police Constable Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old father of two. Aysha Frade, 43, a mother of two, who worked as a teacher in London but originated from the Spanish town of Betanzos, Galicia, was killed on Westminster Bridge. The third victim and the assailant have yet to be named.

The injured included 12 Britons, three French schoolchildren, two Romanians, four South Koreans, two Greeks and one person each from China, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Italy and the United States. Three off-duty policemen were hurt, two of them seriously.

Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, confirmed that a Chinese tourist suffered minor injuries in the attack.

Wednesday’s attack was the latest in a series of murders, attacks and conspiracies committed for political and religious reasons in Britain; most were committed by Islamists but at least two murders were carried out by far-right extremists including the murder of the member of parliament Jo Cox, who was killed last year before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

May chaired a meeting of COBRA, the British government’s emergency unit, and said afterwards the threat level from terror attacks remained at Severe.