Westminster Attack Report Offers Praise Despite Arrests of 12 Without Charge

Praise was made of the use of anti-terrorism powers to search and detain in the aftermath of the attack which killed five people and wounded nearly 30.

The post-incident report into the response to the March 22 Westminster Bridge attack in London was released today by the Terrorism Research and Analysis Centre.

At least twelve individuals were detained by police in the immediate aftermath of the attack, although all were soon released without charges being laid. The report reiterated the importance of authorities minimizing the amount of time individuals are held in custody so as not to interfere with the gathering of evidence with which to pursue the perpetrators and their accomplices.

The attacker, 52-year-old Khalid Masood who was known to counter-terrorism authorities, used a hired Hyandai Tuscon to run down and kill four civilian pedestrians and one police officer on the Westminster Bridge near the House of Parliament in the British capital before being shot dead by law-enforcement. A further 29 by-standers suffered non-fatal injuries. The attack proceeded extremely quickly, lasting for only 82 seconds.

The previous day, the report into the emergency response to the Manchester Arena bombing criticised the nearly two-hour delay that it took for the emergency fire services to reach the scene of the attack and the four hours it took for an emergency casualty center to be established due to the failure of the mobile phone system.