'All hell broke loose' - Cork man gives eye-witness account of Westminster attack
Cork man Michael T Kingston said "all hell broke loose" after witnessing the Westminster terror attack in London yesterday.
The maritime lawyer and director of the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, originally from Goleen in west Cork, told The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM that he was supposed to have been on Parliament Bridge at the time of the attack but had been held up.
Mr Kingston told the show that he "heard shots and saw police scrambling".
"I was at a meeting on the Foregin and Commonwealth office on King Charles St, parrallel with Downing Street towards Westminster.
"I remember checking my phone at 2.37pm and I left there to head to the International Maritime Organisation which meant that I had to go down to Parliament Square and turn left across Parliment Bridge.
"I got to the lights and all hell broke loose.
"There were cars racing around the corner and there was a car mounted on the cirb on the far side and people were running from it.
"I stayed on the north side railing of the bridge where Westminster Station is and next thing I heard shots and saw police scrambling.
"It was quite clear to me at that stage that it was a terrorist attack when I saw bodies on the ground that hadn't been in the vehicle and that the police were shouting he's down there."
Mr Kingston said before the paramedics arrived, by-standers were trying to tend to people, basically, lying dying in the street.
He said he had been delayed at the Foregin and Commonwealth Office, to tell someone about a broken chair, which kept him on the north side railing where he "ushered everyone back that was coming across the bridge".
When Neil asked him what the feeling was like in the moment Mr Kingston said people were standing there bewildered.
"I could see in front of my eyes the police man shouting 'he's down there!', so I knew immediately that it was a terrorist attack, but the problem is that you don't know if there's going to be something else.
"So I just stood there for a second and said: 'Right, which way am I going to go?'".
Mr Kingston conceeded that he doesn't really feel safe in London. He said people have no idea how many incidents had been "excellently prevented" by the British Intelligence Services and a deadly attack occuring was innevitable.
"Unfortunately it was innevitable, with what's going on in the world, that someone would try something like this. A bit like the awful attack in the Christmas market in Germany.
"You can't stop that sort of terrorism completely, it's almost impossible so people did feel secure but there is almost an innevitablitly that something would happen at some stage."
Mr Kingston said he felt he would be fine when asked how he would deal with witnessing the attack as he had dealt with things in his life that gave him strength.
"But I will reflect and pray for those people," he said.
You can listen to the full interview below.
One Irish person was injured in the attack. Their injuries are not life-threatening.
