The man in charge of the Met Police when an unarmed officer was murdered during the Westminster terror attacks stayed in his car nearby as he had no protective equipment, inquests into the attack have heard.

Current deputy commissioner Sir Craig Mackey, who was then acting head of Scotland Yard, was being driven out of the parliament grounds when the attack by terrorist Khalid Masood unfolded.

Moments earlier, Masood, 52, had killed four people on Westminster Bridge - American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54; retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75; Aysha Frade, 44, and Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, before running through the main Westminster gates.

Sir Craig and his colleagues locked the car doors because they had "no protective equipment and no radio", the inquests at the Old Bailey heard.

Image: Police at the scene of the Westminster terror attack

The officer told the jury how he had heard an "abnormally loud bang" that he feared was an explosion, before seeing Masood, with a butcher's knife in his hand, attack PC Palmer, 48, in a courtyard.


Sir Craig said: "There was quite a lot of confusion about what was going on. Clearly the way that the male came in and the purposeful way he came, he was clearly a threat."

The senior officer, who had been meeting policing minister Brandon Lewis before leaving the parliament grounds, saw the constable suffer "two determined stab wounds".

He said: "I could see PC Palmer moving backwards and him going down."

Image: PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death

Sir Craig, who retires in December, added: "The attacker had one of those looks where, if they get you in that look, they would be after you.

"He seemed absolutely focused on getting further down and attacking anyone who was in his way."

He told the jury: "The thing that still shakes me about the attack is that it was 80-plus seconds in total. It didn't feel like that, it felt an awfully long time."

Masood was shot dead by a close protection officer after killing PC Palmer.

Image: Khalid Masood killed five people in the Westminster attack

Asked what his reaction was following the gunshots, Sir Craig said: "First and foremost I was a police officer so I went to open the door to get out.

"One of the PCs, quite rightfully, said 'get out, make safe, go, shut the door,' which he did, and it was the right thing to do.

"That's when I thought 'I have got to start putting everything we need in place. We have got no protective equipment, no radio, I have got two colleagues with me who are quite distressed,' so we moved out."

Sir Craig told jurors it was his "instinct" to get out of the car, but he was in a short-sleeved shirt with no equipment following the ministerial meeting.

"I was conscious my two colleagues were not police officers. If anyone had got out, the way this Masood was looking, anyone who got in his way would have been a target," he said.

"I think anyone who came up against that individual would have faced serious, serious injury, if not death."