this is bbc news. the headlines at 103m: scotland yard says the westminster attacker khalid masood acted alone and his motive may never be known. detectives confirmed the attack lasted just 82 seconds. the family of murdered pc keith palmer has thanked those who fought to save his life and said they were grateful he was not alone. more than 30 people have been injured — two seriously — after a suspected gas explosion on merseyside. the pentagon admits us—led coalition aircraft did strike an area of the iraqi city of mosul, where dozens of civilians were reportedly killed. also in the next hour, a thrilling start to the formula one season. the beginning of the end to mercedes‘ dominance. ferrari‘s sebastian vettel pips mercedes‘ lewis hamilton to the chequered flag in melbourne — his first win since 2015. coming up in half an hour, as theresa may prepares

to invoke article 50, we investigate scotland‘s brexit dilemma. good morning and welcome to bbc news. police say they might never find out why khalid masood killed four people near the houses of parliament on wednesday. scotland yard now say they believe he was acting alone and that the attack was over within 82 seconds. the family of pc keith palmer who was killed by masood have released a statement, thanking those who were with him when he died. alexandra mackenzie reports. 82 seconds. that‘s all it took. in that time, khalid masood caused the deaths of three people on westminster bridge and injured many more. he crashed his car into the railings, ran through a gate at the houses of parliament and

stabbed pc keith palmer to death. last night, his family paid tribute to his selfless bravery, saying... police believe that masood carried out the terror attack on his own, but are trying to establish if he was encouraged or directed by others. questions remain unanswered about his route to radicalisation. he was a violent criminal before converting to islam more than a decade ago. since wednesday, 11 people have been arrested. all have now been released except for a 58—year—old manfrom birmingham. detained under the terrorism act, he can be held without charge for 14 days. members of the public have come to the scene of wednesday‘s attack to pay their respects to the four

people who lost their lives. also to remember the many who were injured and those who remain in hospital. alexandra mackenzie, bbc news. as the investigation continues, the home secretary, amber rudd, says she‘ll meet representatives of social media companies this week, to discuss what further action they can take to address online extremism. let‘s speak to our correspondent nick beake, who‘s at westminster for us. good morning from westminster, the tributes continue to grow for pct palmer. police officers, tourist, taking time to stand and think and contemplate what happens last wednesday. the events that we so have prompted the home secretary to renew her fire when it comes to the big social media companies will stop

we have seen criticism of the likes of google and facebook before. but the home secretary was looking at smaller companies. her concerns on two levels. those platforms which are encrypted, people can send m essa 9 es are encrypted, people can send messages which police and security services are not able to intercept. but also that they are in effect a platform for hatred and poisonous ideology to be shared. this is what the home secretary said on the andrew mart programme this morning. it is completely unacceptable, there should be no place for terrorists to hide. we need to make sure that organisations do not provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other. it used to be that people would steam open envelopes or listen in on phones and they want to find out what people we re they want to find out what people were doing legally. but in this situation we need to make sure intelligence services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted situations.

this is the same situation that is going on between apple and the fbi in washington. apple has so far said they are not going to allow the american authorities to open a back door into their apps, but if they did that this end—to—end impression would not continue. do they have to ta ke would not continue. do they have to take on the big internet companies and force them to open their devices? i would say to tim cook, this is something completely different. we do want them to recognise they have a responsibility to engage with government, to engage with law enforcement agencies, when there is a terrorist situation. we would do it in carefully thought through and legal arrangements. they cannot get away with saying we are a different situation, they are not. tim cook says, it would be wrong for the government to force us to open a back door into our products. and yet

without that, you cannot find out what you need to find out. i would ask him to look at other ways of helping us. it is not necessarily apple itself, it is sometimes other situations. which is why i am calling in a lot of the organisations relevant to that this week to ask them to work with us to deliver the answer. it is not about them standing back from us, this is a national problem. i would them standing back from us, this is a national problem. iwould rather not going to who we are calling in, it isa not going to who we are calling in, it is a long list, but it is also the smaller companies as well. to make sure there is no hiding place for terrorist. i want to make sure everybody takes responsible at heathrow this. —— responsibility for this. we know that khalid masood, the man who carried out the attack, checked his app on his phone on wednesday just three minutes before he launched that deadly assault. it was

at 2:37pm, just before he drove across westminster bridge carrying out the attack, and stabbed pc keith palmer in the grounds of westminster. one of those companies which the home secretary is keen to speak to, she is having a meeting with a number of social media providers hopefully to build bridges and work together with them. we now know from the police that theyin we now know from the police that they in terror attack lasted only 82 seconds, that is quite extraordinary, isn‘t it? yes, less than a minute and a half. it could have taken place over a much longer time frame were it not for the fact that a plainclothes officer who happen to have a sidearm was able to kill the attacker. it may well have been that the terrible events would have played out even longer, but 82 seconds was all that it took for this deadly assault to

ta ke it took for this deadly assault to take place. the police have been working to establish the motive for this, but it was very telling overnight but we heard from a senior counter—terrorism officers saying we may never know why this man carried out this attack. the police insist he was probably inspired by international terrorism, but they have arrested 11 people. one man remains in custody. but it is quite interesting, the police have been quite honest in saying it may be the case that in terms of motive, that is something that this man may have gone to his grave knowing, and it may be impossible to find out why he carried this out. thanks very much, nick. more than 30 people have been hurt — two of them seriously — after a suspected gas explosion in merseyside. a dance centre for children was destroyed and customers at a chinese restaurant were caught in the blast near birkenhead. andy gill sent this report. the scale of the devastation shows just how powerful the explosion was. one building housing three businesses totally destroyed.

this is what it looked like before last night. the blast was heard up to six miles away. an almighty bang but as well as the bang there was pressure as well, i felt a lot of pressure, my window was shut, i thought initially it was in the house, i‘ve ran around like a maniac for a minute looking round obviously to see if my house is still in tact and stuff like that. the sound of the building blowing up was captured by a car‘s dashboard camera. what was that? two people were taken to a trauma unit in liverpool with serious injuries. 32 others were treated at hospitals in wirral and chester. there‘s a multitude of injuries that have happened but the two patients that have gone through to the major trauma unit at aintree have significant injuries. this has clearly been a huge

explosion, powerful enough not only to bring down the main building and scatter debris for hundreds of yards, but also to punch huge holes in the walls of nearby buildings. the emergency services won‘t speculate on the cause of the blast but a number of local people said they smell gas yesterday and on friday. national grid engineers are on the scene. this incident is likely to be protracted, this is likely to last several days. very significant damage as you can tell. so it will be some time before people will be allowed back into their homes. some people whose homes had to be evacuated spent the night in a local church. nearby roads are likely to be closed for some time. andy gill, bbc news, wirral. on the line is a man who was driving

in the area when the explosion happened. many thanks forjoining us this morning, adam. tell us what you saw and heard. we were driving through when we heard the explosion. it turned out we we re heard the explosion. it turned out we were probably about 500 yards away. at first, i had no idea what it was. but i saw someone running from that direction, saying that there has been an explosion, and one of the buildings has been destroyed. so, we headed over that way because i thought, well, so, we headed over that way because ithought, well, i so, we headed over that way because i thought, well, i am a trained firstaid, so i thought, well, i am a trained first aid, so i i thought, well, i am a trained firstaid, so i may be i thought, well, i am a trained first aid, so i may be able to do something to help. as we pulled up, we saw bricks and glass and rubble everywhere. so i went running over to see if i could do anything, and a police officer stopped me. i presume he was off duty, he certainly was not in uniform, and he asked me to

run into some of the houses that we re run into some of the houses that were nearby and had been hit, to see if there was anybody inside. what did you find? thankfully, i did not find any people, there was nobody in them. but all the houses, the front doors we re but all the houses, the front doors were completely grown —— blown in. and inside each of the houses, it was just and inside each of the houses, it wasjust an and inside each of the houses, it was just an absolute mess, lots of rubble, class everywhere —— glace. i did not release see a lot, because it was dark and i did not want to turn any lights on, what with there being the really strong smell of gas. but looking round, it wasjust an absolute mess. as we are talking to you, we are looking at pictures of the scene, and it is a scene of utter devastation, the explosion was clearly extremely powerful.

yeah, definitely. the rubble and the brick had really travelled a fair distance, and the houses opposite that i was in, all the windows were blown in and the doors have come off. you sound slightly shaken. iam, to be you sound slightly shaken. i am, to be honest. it was quite unnerving experience, the adrenaline got pumping at the time and ijust ran in to see what i could do. 0k, ran in to see what i could do. ok, adam, very good to talk to you, and thank you very much your time. an investigation has been opened after the pentagon confirmed that american—led coalition fighter jets struck a location in the iraqi city of mosul where many civilians were killed. us central command says iraqi military requested the attack against islamic state militants. tim allman reports. day after day, the exodus from mosul continues. thousands of people have fled the violence as a battle rages

for control of the city. plumes of smoke rise above the rooftops, air strikes and shelling taking a heavy toll. now the us military has acknowledged coalition aircraft at a location in the west of mosul, and it may have been civilians who paid the price. both the iraqi military forces in the us coalition have acknowledged that there was an air strike and possibly hundreds of casualties. we are waiting to see what the results of the investigation are. we know that there have been many, many families that have been impacted by this tragedy, and that there are a large number of injured, a large number of deaths. in a statement, us central command said: those protected sites as claimed

include schools, hospitals, mosques. sometimes people‘s homes. this is the neighbourhood where the air strikes happened. eyewitnesses say at least 50 bodies were pulled from the rubble days after the building collapsed. the dead included children, the elderly, pregnant women. thousands have left the city, but thousands more remain. how many more will lose their lives as the battle for mosul continues? for more on this we can talk now to our correspondent yalda hakim, who‘s in the iraqi city of irbil. the americans are admitting that

there might be possibly hundreds of casualties as a result of this s/, which they say they carried out. that is a disaster, isn‘t it? indeed it is, because winning the hearts and minds of the civilians, who are still trapped inside west mosul is so important for the coalition forces. for the past week and a half, there have been widespread reports that these strikes took place, us—led strikes in that area, and they did issue a statement yesterday saying that they have launched an investigation, and as we saw in the piece, they have said that they respect human life, but they are not going to abandon this particular operation. it is quite difficult for the coalition forces at the moment. they told the bbc that they need to get the balance of this operation right. if they go too fast, they risk killing

people through strikes. if they go too slow, people continue to be brutalised at the hands of the so—called islamic state. it is a very difficult balancing act for the coalition forces at the moment. they have also said that they have launched these are strikes at the result —— request of the iraqi forces. it is still a murky situation, but the pentagon has admitted that they have launched the strikes and that more than 150 people have been killed. and in the meantime, it is still unclear precisely how many people may have died ? indeed. there have been different reports. it is hard for the bbc to verify how many people have been killed in these strikes. we have heard as many to —— as 200. many are still stuck under the rubble, children, women, they have not been able to get them out. it is difficult to tell how mini people have been stuck under the rubble,

how many people were killed. across the front line continues to move. it is now currently in the old city. it is now currently in the old city. it isa is now currently in the old city. it is a difficult for reporters to get to the area. we have our middle eastern editorjeremy bowen there, who has been speaking to civilians who has been speaking to civilians who have been trying to get out of west mosul. they have confirmed there are ongoing s strikes in the area. they also continue to be used assumed shields by ias fighters in the area. —— as human shields by icas fighters. the front line renewing to move makes it difficult for us to verify and report on the ongoing situation in west mosul. —— continuing to move. thank you very much will stop time for the headlines. scotland yard says the westminster attacker khalid masood acted alone and there is no information to assume further attacks were planned. the family of the murdered pc keith

palmer has thanked those who fought to save his life and say they are thankful he was not alone. more than 30 people have been injured, two seriously, after a suspected gas explosion on merseyside. sport now, and a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good morning, many thanks. ferrari‘s sebastien vettel won the first race of the formula one season, as lewis hamilton and his mercedes team were left to rue a badly timed pit stop which cost them victory in melbourne. signs then that this season may not be the procession for mercedes that it has been in recent years, as nick parrott reports. the sebastian vettel victory finger had not been seen for 18 months, until today. that‘s because mercedes have dominated formula i for the last three years, starting from pole in melbourne, lewis hamilton was the favourite to win the race, and when he emerged from the first corner in the lead, many might have thought all bets were off. new rules have been brought in to make the cars faster and the sport more exciting, but this race was won, thanks to a tactical error,

with sebastian vettel pressuring hamilton, mercedes blinked first, bringing him in for fresh tyres. he came out in fifth and got stuck in traffic. we need to get past verstappen. sebastian vettel timed his stop to perfection. he came out in front of hamilton and mercedes knew their challenge was over. he cruised to the chequered flag, winning by more than nine seconds. the last time he won the opening race was in 2011 when he went on to become champion. hamilton has been warned. england, scotland and northern ireland are all in action this evening, in their latest qualifiers for next year‘s world cup. gareth southgate is looking for his first win since taking on the england manager‘s job permanently. he says the side must have the flexibility to adapt to different opponents — and their match against lithuania at wembley will be all about the performance. we know how important the national football team is for the feeling we are hungry young team with a lot

of potential, and we want to go out and play an exciting brand of football. we have worked hard for each other, and the scoreline takes ca re of each other, and the scoreline takes care of itself if you do all of those things correctly, so we are a lwa ys those things correctly, so we are always focusing on performance and the result will follow. there‘s arguably most at stake for scotland tonight — they‘re in the same group as england, but are fifth and if they don‘t beat slovenia, their hopes of qualifying would look very slim indeed. sometimes it‘s easy for a manager to say this is what we‘re going to do. sometimes you‘re in a position, well, if we draw, win, or we lose, we can still be... it depends... we have to win. what we don‘t have to do is win it in the first five, six, seven, ten minutes. you never know in big games when your opportunity comes along. northern ireland are well placed heading into their match with norway. they‘re second in the group, five points behind germany, and on course to clinch a play off place. we have the opportunity to put seven points between ourselves and norway, the opportunity to get to ten points

and i think when you get to that stage of any campaign you start to really believe it‘s possible and to put yourself in a position to qualify. certainly the experience of qualifying for france, we‘ve been through that, and these experiences, we know what‘s required to get there now. anthony crolla was outclassed in his bid to regain the wba lightweight title in manchester last night. he lost his rematch withjorge linares on points. in front of a home crowd, crolla went down in the seventh round, after a stinging uppercut. and though he responded well, linares retained the belt on a unanimous decision. there are three british players in the finals of the british open squash. the world now but one was beaten, and at 36 the oldest winner.

massaro will face sarahjane perry, who knocked out another player who was world number one for nine years. and before i go, scotland‘s women have been to sweden to —— beaten sweden two bronze in the world curling championship. that‘s all the sport for now. you can keep up to date with all those stories on the bbc sport website. and i‘ll have more in the next hour. fifa‘s former medical director has spoken out about the abuse of legal painkillers by elite footballers — something he says could have ‘life—threatening implications‘. jiri dvorak, claims around half of players involved in the past three world cups regularly took non—steroidal, anti—inflammatory drugs. he spoke to david ornstein as part of the bbc‘s state of sport week. it‘s known as the beautiful game but the pursuit of glory can be ugly. when injury occurs there is pressure

to play through the pain and now a leading doctor says the use of legal medication is one of football‘s biggest problems. if you cover up symptoms over years or decades, this is general in medicine, if you have an underlying pathology and you constantly cover up with medication, the underlying pathology or disease is not cured. dr dvorak warned about this in 2012 when he found almost 40% of players at the 2010 world cup took painkillers before every game. football‘s governing body fifa say they are providing education on the well—being of athletes, while the professional footballers‘ association insist it is not a major issue in the english game. but dr dvorak argues that lessons have not been learned. when i put on the weight on the scale the doping and the abuse of medication, the abuse of medication is much more alarming.

wake up and be careful. it‘s not as harmless as you think, that you can take it like cookies. it has side—effects. well, this isn‘t about banned or hard to come by substances or supplements, it‘s about everyday over—the—counter anti—inflammatories like ibuprofen and the question is whether and to what extent these are being misused by footballers. it's widespread in football. always has been, always will be. as a player you first ask is it is legal? if it is, it's fine. is it going to help you get through a game? yes. generally without too many questions, without too much concern, you'll take what you've been offered. the overuse of medication feeds into the wider topic of athlete welfare, an issue the government is taking seriously with a duty of care review due to be published shortly.

david ornstein, bbc news. the first dinosaurs may have originated in the northern hemisphere— and could even have lived in the area that‘s now britain. it‘s just one of the findings in a new study published in thejournal nature, which suggests that theories about dinosaurs that have been around for over 100 years could actually be wrong. our science correspondent pallab ghosh has more. fossilised bones that capture a time that dinosaurs ruled the earth, more than 65 million years ago. by measuring how they changed over the years, researchers worked out how they are related, and how they evolved. but a new assessment published in thejournal nature, which suggests that that theory which has lasted 130 years, maybe wrong. the current theory is that there are two main groups of dinosaurs. one, including the stegosaurus, and another which has two branches. the vegetarians such as the brontosaurus, and the meat eaters such

as the savage tyrannosaurus rex. it turns out that the meat eaters are in the wrong group and should be with the stegosaurus. it also shows that the very first dinosaurs did not originate in east africa, but much further north, possibly in an area which is now britain. we have taken dinosaur origins, which originally were thought to be southern hemisphere and brought them into the northern hemisphere, and it could well be that dinosaurs originated even within britain itself. what we have here is a key specimen in this analysis. and here is the fossil that led to this shock finding, a primitive dinosaur the size of a cat was found in lossiemouth in scotland. it was an animal like this that led to the creatures that dominated this planet for 165 million years. the new family tree will mean that we will have to rethink our ideas of how they evolved and spread

across the globe. this is a fairly major change to our knowledge of dinosaurs. we have had a system in place for 130 years, we thought we understood the relationships of these big groups of animals, but it may be that we have a major rearrangement of the dinosaur tree. this re—evaluation of fossils challenges a theory that has been accepted since the victorian era, and so will be controversial. but if it is proved to be correct, textbooks on the subject will have to be rewritten. let‘s get a weather update. it has been a glorious start today, sunshine across the board for most of us, and a fantastic sunrise across the east coast of ingram. red sky in the morning, shepherds‘ warning, they can get back to

looking after the sheep, custody is going to be fantastic. sunshine across the board, mist clearing away from the western isles, and across shetland it will be quite cloudy. another warm day, temperatures could hit 19 across sheltered parts of northern scotland, could be the warmest day of the year so far. overnight we will keep clear skies, chilly for northern ireland and scotland, pocket of rural frost, temperatures staying above freezing. more of the same on monday, low cloud to start the day across eastern part of ingram. turning away with sunshine across the board, lighter winds across south—east england, temperatures at 18 degrees, otherwise the highest temperatures generally in the west. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: scotland yard has confirmed the attack in westminster by khalid masood took just 82 seconds.

detectives have revealed his motive may never be known. they believe he acted alone, despite one of the 11 people arrested in connection with the attack remaining in custody. the family of pc keith palmer who was killed in the attack have paid tribute to him and thanked those who helped him after he was stabbed. they said they wanted to express their gratitude to the people who were with him in his last moments. more than 30 people have been injured, two seriously, after a suspected gas explosion in merseyside. several buildings collapsed and others were damaged in the incident and homes nearby have been evacuated. it could be several days before owners can return. the pentagon has admitted us—led coalition aircraft did strike an area in the iraqi city of mosul, where dozens of civilians are said to have been killed. the un says there‘s growing concern about the fate of civilians in the city, where government forces