A former Dubbo resident who now resides in London said she was horrified to learn of the terror attack that rocked England’s capital on Wednesday.
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Katina Vangopoulos, a former Daily Liberal journalist, was at home when she found out about the attack just eight kilometres away. It claimed the life of five people including a police officer and the attacker himself, and left around 40 injured.
The European tour guide had returned to London that day following a stint in the Austrian alps.
“I was at home on my phone, and a friend from Austria had messaged to ask if I was OK,” she said.
“I was shocked, I had to look up what had happened and I was horrified.
“You never want to hear about something like that happening so close to you.”
Just hours earlier a lone assailant ploughed a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer outside the British Parliament. The Parliament went into lockdown and the heart of the British capital came to a standstill.
“It's really sad that incidents like this seem to be becoming more common,” Katina said.
“Living and working in Europe, security is a lot higher in many cities than when I first travelled over here. But you can't let it stop you from continuing your life.”
Katina said she wasn’t aware that anyone she knew was affected by the attack.
You never want to hear about something like that happening so close to you.
- Katina Vangopoulos
“A lot of my friends marked themselves as safe on Facebook,” she said. “I did as well to let my family and friends know, and my mum was especially relieved.”
Dubbo travel agency, We Know Travel, said on Thursday they had no clients in London at the time of the attack.
“We’ve gone through our files and we haven’t got anyone right there at this particular point, however we do have some people heading into London in the coming weeks,” owner Kerin Stonestreet said. “We’ll be monitoring that really closely.”
Ms Stonestreet said the agency receives hourly advisories on the situation and will continue to communicate with their clients.
“For us, it has pulled us up quite quickly to go, ‘This is London, this has happened, no one is immune or safe’ – it’s right in the heart of London,” she said.
“When I see the photos it’s where we’ve all walked when we’ve visited the UK, but people will continue to travel to London, they’ll just be more cautious.”
The chaos began when a vehicle being driven over the Westminster Bridge mowed down a number of pedestrians, before crashing into a fence outside the Houses of Parliament. Armed with a knife, he stabbed one police officer guarding the building. Other officers shot him dead.
