London on edge, police arrest eight after Daesh attack

A police officer works at the scene after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London, Britain.

The attacker who killed three people near the British parliament before being shot dead was British-born and was once investigated by MI5 intelligence agents over concerns about violent extremism, Prime Minister Theresa May said, on Thursday. Police said his name was Khalid Masood, a 52-year man born in Britain.
The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement issued by its Amaq news agency. But it gave no name or other details and it was not clear whether the attacker was directly connected to the group.

ATTACK ON BRITISH PARLIAMENT-Four people, including a police officer, were killed and around 40 injured in a terror attack. The assailant was shot dead by police after he mowed down people with his car
Police arrested eight people at six locations in London and Birmingham in the investigation into Wednesday's lone-wolf attack that May said was inspired by a warped ideology.
About 40 people were injured and 29 remain in hospital, seven in critical condition, after the incident which resembled Daesh-inspired attacks in France and Germany where vehicles were driven into crowds.
The assailant sped across Westminster Bridge in a car, ploughing into pedestrians along the way, then ran through the gates of the nearby parliament building and fatally stabbed an unarmed policeman before being shot dead.
"What I can confirm is that the man was British-born and that some years ago he was once investigated by MI5 in relation to concerns about violent extremism," May said in a statement to parliament.
"He was a peripheral figure...He was not part of the current intelligence picture. There was no prior intelligence of his intent or of the plot," she said. The mayhem in London came on the first anniversary of attacks that killed 32 people in Brussels. Twelve people were killed in Berlin in December when a truck ploughed into a Christmas market and 84 died in July in a similar attack on the Nice waterfront for which Daesh claimed responsibility.
Daesh, which is being driven from large areas of Iraq and Syria by local forces supported by a US-led military coalition, said it was responsible for the London attack.
"The perpetrator of the attacks...is a Daesh soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition," a statement on its Amaq agency website said.
They tried to silence our democracy: Theresa May
British Prime Minister Theresa May, in a sweeping speech to lawmakers, said she would encourage people in London to go about their lives.
"An act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy," May told a packed House of Commons, which stood for a minute's silence in remembrance of the victims of the strike on the very symbol of British democracy.
"We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism," she added.
May described it as "a perversion of a great faith."
"As I speak millions will be boarding trains and airplanes to travel to London, and to see for themselves the greatest city on Earth," she told lawmakers. "It is in these actions - millions of acts of normality - that we find the best response to terrorism - a response that denies our enemies their victory, that refuses to let them win, that shows we will never give in."