Khalid Masood

On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster in London, seat of the British Parliament. The attacker, 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, injuring more than 50 people, four of them fatally.

After the car crashed into the perimeter fence of the Palace grounds, Masood abandoned it and ran into New Palace Yard where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was then shot by an armed police officer and died at the scene. The attack lasted 82 seconds. Police initially treated the attack as "Islamist-related terrorism", seizing over 2,700 items and detaining 12 people in a counterterrorism operation. Amaq News Agency claimed the attacker answered the Islamic State's calls to target citizens of states that are fighting against it, though the claim was disputed. Police later said that they had not determined his motive and had found no link with a terrorist organisation so far.