European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism: Westminster Bridge Islamist attack survivor recounts being 'thrown into the air' by SUV
A victim of Islamist terrorism has told a Belfast audience how he was “thrown into the air for what felt like forever” by a terrorist who drove his SUV into a crowd near Big Ben.
Travis Dylan Frain OBE survived the 2017 Westminster Bridge terrorist attack when he and his friends were injured by a vehicle driven by an Islamist terrorist.
Khalid Masood killed four people and injured 50 more in 2017 when he ploughed his car into crowds on the bridge, before stabbing PC Keith Palmer.
Victims of loyalist, republican and Islamist terror attacks took part in the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism event at Stormont, on Monday.
Travis now campaigns against violent extremism, going into schools and universities to talk about extreme ideologies.
In November 2024, he was commissioned as the youngest deputy lord-lieutenant, a personal representative of the monarch.
In 2018, he was one of six British survivors of terrorism who founded the charity Survivors Against Terror, to campaign for improvements in state support for victims of terrorism.
Aged 19 and an aspiring history teacher, Travis was on a university field trip to Westminster when he was severely injured in the attack.
The attacker was driving an SUV at 46mph when Travis heard his friend shout "look out".
He added: "I went over the bonnet, hit the windshield, and I remember being thrown into the air for what felt like forever."
"All I could see above me was Big Ben and the sky, and then I landed back down the ground."
The only reason he survived was because his head landed on his friend's stomach.
The attack broke his hand and his leg in two places and he suffered a shrapnel injury near the artery in his leg.
Over 50 people were injured but 75% were not British - which he said ran counter to the attacker's aim to attack the UK.
Afterwards he found it very difficult to access all the services he needed to recover.
And this, he said, helps terrorist because “it only serves to undermine people's faith in the systems that govern us”.
He closed in wishing the victims present “all the best in your efforts at accountability and justice”.