Utah man on wedding anniversary trip with wife among those killed in London attack

London: A statement from the Mormon church issued on behalf of relatives said on Thursday a Utah man was among those killed in Wednesday’s London attack and his wife was seriously injured.

Kurt W Cochran and his wife, Melissa, were on the last day of a special trip celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary when the deadly attack played out in the heart of London. They had been due to return to the United States on Thursday, according to a statement from his brother-in-law, Clinton Payne.

An attacker plowed an SUV into pedestrians on Wednesday on London’s Westminster Bridge, killing two and wounding dozens, and then stabbed police officer Keith Palmer inside the gates of Parliament. The assailant was shot dead by armed officers.

The church said the Utah couple was also visiting the woman’s parents, who are serving as Mormon missionaries in London. The woman remains hospitalised. Her family said Cochran was a good man and loving husband.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, and the investigation shifted on Thursday to a city in central England long known as an incubator for radicalism.

The attacker was born in Britain and had been investigated for links to religious extremism, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a sweeping speech to lawmakers in which she also encouraged people in London to go about their lives. At least eight people were arrested in raids, some in the central city of Birmingham.

The Islamic State group said through its Aamaq News Agency that the attacker was a soldier of the Islamic State who “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of the coalition” of countries fighting IS in Syria and Iraq. In addition to the police officer and the attacker, who was shot by police, two people died on Westminster Bridge and at least 30 others were injured, seven critically.

British officials did not release the attacker’s identity or confirm a link with the Islamic State group. May described it as “a perversion of a great faith.”

The IS group has been responsible for numerous bloody attacks around the globe and has specifically called for Western followers to carry out this kind of attack in their own countries, though the group has also claimed events later found to have no clear links to it.

The London attack echoed vehicle rampages in Nice, France, and Berlin last year that the group claimed under its banner.

May set an unyielding tone on Thursday, saluting the heroism of the police, as well as the ordinary actions of everyone who went about their lives in the aftermath.

“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.”

Parliament began its moment of silence at 9:33 am, honouring the shoulder number of the slain officer, Keith Palmer, a 15-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police and a former soldier. Then Parliament, which was locked down after the attack, returned to business, a counter to those who had attacked British democracy.

Police believe the attacker acted alone and there is no reason to believe “imminent further attacks” are planned, May said. He had been investigated before but police believed he was a peripheral figure.