Frazer Clarke had just walked out of the Houses of Parliament when he heard a loud bang. Then came the screams.
The 31-year-old boxer thought there had been a car crash. Having never been to London before, he assumed the crowds of people running were just part of the hustle and bustle of city life.
But what Frazer didn’t realise was that he’d actually just witnessed the start of a terrorist attack.
“Everything was normal, I thought it was fantastic,” the boxer told the Manchester Evening News. “I saw people running and in London, the world is a million miles an hour, so I didn’t think anything of it.
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“Then I saw police officers running. I looked up and saw a guy come around the corner with two knives, driving them into a police officer.”
The year was 2017 and Frazer was caught up in the Westminster attack. The incident took place outside the Palace of Westminster in London on March 22.
Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, injuring more than 50 people and killing four.
He then crashed the car into the perimeter fence of the palace grounds and ran into New Palace Yard, where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was then shot by an armed police officer and died.
“The police officer wriggled free from the guy and fell down two metres away from us,” Frazer, who was attending a press conference in London at the time, continued. “Another police officer walked up and shot him twice. I just felt like pinching myself because I didn’t think this was real life.
“It happened really quickly. We got ushered back into the Houses of Parliament and we were stuck there for eight hours. We didn’t know what was going on.
“Looking back now as an older guy with two kids, the guy that died in front of me was a father and a husband. It touches home a bit more now than at the time.”
The tragedy wasn’t the violent incident Frazer had experienced. The Manchester United fan, from Burton-on-Trent, was seriously hurt during a vicious attack in 2016.
The dad-of-two was out celebrating his daughter's birth when he got into a heated altercation and was stabbed three times, once in the neck and twice in the leg.
The terrifying experience left him fearing he would not survive and be able to raise his then two-week-old daughter.
“It's a problem that I don't think we'll ever [get rid of],” he said. “I believe that people think this is a cool thing to do. It's for their own image. Somewhere along the line, this all got mixed and people began to think that killing people is cool.
“Taking someone away from their mother, away from their kids...I lay on a hospital bed and my mum was crying, my dad was holding me down while [the nurses] were playing with my neck and my leg.
"I had a good friend who died from this. Remember this, once its over, that's it. You're gone and people cry and mourn for you at a funeral. Next week they're worried about what football team's playing and you become a memory.”
Despite the terrifying experience, Frazer went on to represent Team GB in the men's Super-Heavyweight category at the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics – taking home a bronze medal. “It was an honour for me and my family,” he added.
He began boxing at the age of 11-year-old and “fell in love” with the sport after winning his first fight at the age of 14.
“For the first time in a long time, I was better than everyone else,” he said. “My father was taking me down the club every week and it was the first place I felt at home. My confidence grew and I met my coach who had a huge influence on my life.
“I fell in love with the sport. There were people there from different backgrounds, different religions and there were loads of characters.
“My first fight was in Coventry. The actual moment and force of winning that fight – it completely captured me. I get goosebumps thinking about it.
“It was the first thing I won in my life. I fell in love with it. From then on, it went from just being a guy that went to boxing training to an every day thing.”
Frazer had a train driving apprenticeship lined up after finishing school but quit the job once he was called up to Team GB.
After the games were over, he turned professional and has been climbing the ranks ever since, with a string of knockout victories. The boxer is set to take his next step at Manchester Arena on March 25.
On the fight, Frazer said: “You’re excited, you’re nervous. You just want to get the result – but I would say I am ready to go now.”
The latest Boxxer card will be shown live on Sky Sports, with Jack Catterall also featuring after his March fight against Josh Taylor was cancelled due to injury.
Frazer will take on American Rydell Booker as he hopes to extend his unbeaten 5-0 record, having won comfortably on the undercard of Liam Smith vs Chris Eubank Jr at the same venue last month.
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