The archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to victims of the Westminster terror attack in a special vigil in Westminster Hall this morning.

The service, marking the first anniversary of the attack that left five dead including police officer Keith Palmer, was attended by senior politicians, police officers and Church of England figures.

The assailant, 52-year-old Khalid Masood, drove at speed across Westminster Bridge before crashing into railings outside the Houses of Parliament and launching a knife attack to try to get inside before he was shot dead.

The rampage left five dead – 48-year-old Pc Palmer, who was on duty at the Palace of Westminster, along with US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, and Britons Aysha Frade, 44, and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes, who were mown down on the bridge.

Justin Welby told the gathering: 'A year ago, darkness struck across Westminster Bridge and in this palace.

'It spread across the bridge like a snake, driving to left and right, killing and harming.'

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Speaker's chaplain, praised PC Palmer saying he 'ran towards the danger in order that we might be safe'.

She added: 'A year ago today on this estate and on Westminster Bridge we were visited by what I regard as evil.'

Earlier Tobias Ellwood, the foreign office minister who gave mouth-to-mouth to PC Palmer in an attempt to save him, recalled the moments after he died. 

'All I could offer was there are some bad people in the world, but...it's the good people that win,' he told the BBC.

The message #LondonUnited will be projected across London Bridge, Finsbury Park Mosque, Parsons Green underground station, and the Houses of Parliament overnight 'as an act of solidarity'.