London terror victim policeman sent off by thousands

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Thousands gathered to pay their final respects to a British police officer killed in a terror attack in London last month.

Forty-eight-year-old husband and father Keith Palmer was stabbed to death outside the U.K. parliament by Khalid Masood on March 22.

Thousands of officers lined Monday’s procession route from Parliament to Southwark Cathedral where the funeral ceremony was held.

Palmer’s remains had been brought to Westminster Chapel, next to the Palace of Westminster, on Sunday and remained there overnight -- a procedure usually reserved for heads of state and granted by special permission from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Palmer’s funeral service began with a two-minute silence.

The slain officer had been on duty protecting parliament when he was killed.

Khalil Masood had driven into pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge, killing three people and injuring more than a dozen others before attacking Palmer with a knife.

Teacher Aysha Frade, who had a Turkish-Cypriot father; Londoner Leslie Rhodes; and U.S. tourist Kurt W. Cochran died on the bridge.

A fifth victim, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, who had fallen into the River Thames from the bridge during Masood’s rampage, died in hospital last week.

Daesh claimed the attack but British police said they had not found any significant ties between the attacker and the terror group.