Vigil At Scene Of London Terror Attack

LONDON, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Mar, 2017 ) - Hundreds of people joined hands in a human chain in the heart of London on Wednesday to pay tribute to the four people killed in a terror attack a week ago.

The mourners also observed a minute's silence at the very moment on March 22 when Khalid Masood ploughed his car into a crowd in a rampage that killed three people on Westminster Bridge in the shadow of Big Ben.

He then stabbed a police officer at the entrance of the Houses of Parliament to death before being shot dead by armed police. Many gathered on the bridge were Muslims, there to pay tribute to the victims and to distance themselves from the 52-year-old Masood, who had converted to islam.

"Islam says NO to terror" and "Islam means PEACE", said some of the placards. "We will not turn against each other and we will challenge those that seek to divide us," said Mustafa Field, head of the Faiths Forum for London charity.

Mak Chishty, a police commander who took part in the vigil, said he felt "very emotional, very sad, very shaken".

Around 50 people were also injured in last week, 12 of whom remain in hospital, after the attack which the Islamic State said was carried out by one of its "soldiers".

The family of one of the victims, Aysha Frade, on Wednesday said they felt a "crushing pain and eternal void" following her death. "You were ripped away from our lives in the cruellest and most cowardly of ways.

We now pray that you guide and protect not only us, but all of London, from further evil," the family said in a statement. Police arrested 12 people in total over the killings but only one, a 30-year-old man, remains in custody on suspicion of "preparation of terrorist acts".

A 58-year-old man arrested last week was released without charge on Wednesday. Parliament speaker John Bercow said there would be two reviews into security after Masood managed to gain access to the courtyard of the building.