London attack: How strangers rushed to aid of Westminster Bridge victims following attacker's rampage

Images show members of the public tending to casualties in trail of destruction

A victim lies in the road as passers-by comfort him, marking one many casualties in the trail of destruction left in the wake of the attacker's onslaught (Reuters)

Amid the devastation that struck Westminster on Wednesday, killing three innocent people and injuring dozens more, humanity rang strong as passers-by rushed to the aid of victims.

Members of the public were quick to respond to the sight of wounded people caught in the path of the attacker's car on Westminster Bridge, comforting and in some cases performing first aid on casualties as they lay in the road in the minutes before emergency services arrived.

The devastation arose after the attacker, armed with two long knives, drove his car through a crowd of people on the bridge, before stabbing a police officer to death on the grounds of Parliament.

Images show strangers tending to casualties in the trail of destruction left in the wake of the attacker’s onslaught, which saw him mount the 4x4 onto the pavement and plough into pedestrians.

One woman can be seen cradling a female victim’s head on the pavement as blood trails from underneath her, while another shows a member of the public appearing to give CPR to an injured man lying on the side of the road.

In other images a bloodied man can be seen lying on the ground with several strangers comforting him, and an elderly man can be seen clutching his leg in the road while two members of the public kneel down beside him.

One woman hit by the attacker's car before he reached Parliament was confirmed dead by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital after suffering “catastrophic injuries”.

Speaking to reporters outside St Thomas’s Hospital following the attack, which is situated immediately at the southern end of Westminster Bridge, junior doctor Colleen Anderson confirmed the woman was the first fatality in the attack.

“She was under the wheel of a bus. She died, [medics] confirmed her death at the scene,” she said.

Ms Anderson added that she treated a police officer in his thirties with a head injury who had been taken to King's College Hospital. In his statement to the press, Metropolitan Police acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley said three officers were among those injured on the bridge.

Another woman who fell into the Thames was rescued and given urgent medical treatment on a nearby pier.

A party of French schoolchildren were among those targeted on the bridge, while four students from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk were also hurt — two described as “walking wounded”, and another couple said to have minor injuries.

Romanian and South Korean tourists were also caught up in the tragedy.

Van driver Mitchell Spree, 27, told The Independent he was driving along Embankment when he saw people being evacuated from nearby buildings.

He said: “Then we pulled on to the bridge. A lady was lying at the entrance to the bridge. There were about five more people.

"She was crying. She was speaking to the paramedic. I don't know what the others were like. The police asked us to leave our van. It's still on the bridge. It's shocking."

Deputy Commissioner Mark Rowley said the attack had been declared a terrorist incident, and a major counter-terror operation has been launched across the country in its wake.