One mainland student initially thought it was a film shoot; a civil servant working nearby said she first found out about the attack through her parents in Hong Kong
As Britain’s MI5 intelligence service probes the terrorist attack in London on Wednesday that ended in four deaths and more than 40 injuries, some ethnic Chinese people who live or study in London recounted the dramatic terrorist attack to the. As of Thursday, at six locations in London and Birmingham as part of the probe into Wednesday’s lone-wolf attack that British Prime Minister Theresa May said was inspired by a warped Islamist ideology. The attacker was British-born and was once a subject of an MI5 investigation related to violent extremism. He sped across Westminster Bridge in a car, ploughing into pedestrians along the way, crashed the vehicle into railings, then ran through the gates of the nearby parliament building and fatally stabbed an unarmed policeman before being shot dead. No Hong Kong people were hurt in the incident. The casualties included 12 Britons, four South Koreans, three French children, two Romanians, two Greeks, one German, one Pole, and one American, May said. Chen Kangling, a Chinese student from Chongqing, said he arrived in the area shortly after the officer was stabbed. “I thought it was a film shoot,” Chen told the as he saw people lying on the ground with some under double-decker buses. But the crowds did not seem to panic, he added. It was not until dozens of police cars arrived that the 22-year-old realised the dramatic scene was real. “I once thought terrorist attacks were far away from me. RIP.” Chen said. Felix Chan Yin-lam, 31, who has worked in London as an administrator for 10 years, said: “It is just such a tragedy for those who have been killed, but then threats are part of life as the London mayor said.
