An MP who fought to save the life of a police officer during last year's Westminster terror attack has told how he closed his eyes and apologised in the moments after his death.
Tobias Ellwood rushed to help PC Keith Palmer after he was stabbed by Khalid Masood on March 22.
Holding back tears as he spoke at an inquest into the victims' death, the MP said: "[We] closed the eyes and then I said 'I'm sorry'."
Four others died after Masood drove into them on Westminster Bridge.
The inquest into the deaths of PC Palmer, 48, Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, is taking place at the Old Bailey in London.
An inquest into the death of Masood - who was shot dead by armed police during the attack - will take place afterwards.
Mr Elwood, who was at a meeting nearby when the attack took place, told how he ran through the crowd and saw PC Palmer lying on the ground.
The former soldier told the inquest that, despite the risk attacker Khalid Masood may have had a bomb in his abandoned car, his main concern was giving help to the stricken officer.
The MP, whose brother died in Bali in 2002, said: "My brother was killed in a secondary attack ... so I was very aware of that.
"I was concerned about what would happen if things were to ratchet up, but my immediate concern was that we had somebody who was clearly badly bleeding and needed assistance."
Mr Ellwood said PC Palmer was unconscious when he approached, but that he still had a pulse, telling the court: "I was encouraged that we'd arrived on the scene early enough to do something."
The MP commenced CPR, which he continued after paramedics and doctors from the helicopter ambulance team arrived.
When it became clear PC Palmer would not survive, Mr Ellwood told a doctor present: "You’re going to have to order me to stop".
The medic said: "Sir, you’ve done your best but you do need to stop."
Another member of the public who helped PC Palmer, Anthony Davis, told the inquest that he said "come on son, stay with us" to the stricken officer.
Mr Davis described seeing "blood pooling in between the cobbles" as the extent of PC Palmer's injuries became clear.
Both he and Mr Elwood were left with the officer’s body.
The MP said: "We both covered the body as best we could, closed the eyes and I said: 'I’m sorry.'
"It was very, very silent, it was a very strange end to a very traumatic four or five minutes, to suddenly be left completely alone with just one other person."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel