UM study broad: No students in London during attack

The Daily Mississippian “By the grace of God, no one is in London right now,” Ole Miss study abroad adviser Skip Langley said.
Conservative Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood, centre, helps emergency services attend to an injured person outside the Houses of Parliament, London, Wednesday.
Wednesday morning, news spread about a terrorist attack in London when a knife-wielding man plowed a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a police officer at the gates of Parliament. Four were killed, including the attacker, and about 40 others were injured, in what Prime Minister Theresa May called a “sick and depraved terrorist attack,” according to The Associated Press.
All the other students in the United Kingdom have been confirmed safe.
Langley, who oversees students in different regions including the United Kingdom, said this was the first time in his six-year tenure that no students were studying abroad in London.
In 2005, Langley was an Ole Miss student himself studying abroad in London. He was there when the July 7, 2005, London bombings happened. The bombings, a series of coordinated suicide bombings in public transportation, killed 52 people and injured hundreds.
“Some of those emotions I had then, I had again today when I got that alert,” Langley said.
He said risks like this are always in the back of his mind as a study abroad adviser, but the office does have a reaction plan to ensure everyone’s safety when it does happen.
The first people the office reaches out to in these situations are the people living directly in that area. Then, it continues to check with everyone nearby. He said people may not be simply studying in one specific city or country, as students travel all around for spring break and other occasions.
No students with the Study Abroad Office were directly affected by the attack. Two students, Lauren Vonder Haar and William Mayo, were in ...


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