St. John's man was just minutes from visiting London attack site, with daughter in tow

A St. John's man who was sightseeing in Londonwith his young daughter just a few blocks from Wednesday's attack said he's left wondering what would have happened if they had been on the Westminster Bridge when the chaos broke out.

We would have been walking across the bridge had we not had tomake an emergency stop for a croissant.- Jonathan Hayward

Jonathan Hayward a news photographer with the Canadian Press was riding a bus with his nine-year-old daughter just minutes from where a lone attacker killed three people, including a police officer, outside the British Parliament.

• British police say attacker inspired by terrorism; 7 arrested in raids

Hayward said the bus they were on stopped, and the driver told everyone to get off the bus because of a "terrorist shooting" on the bridge.

"We would have been walking across the bridge had we not had tomake an emergency nine-year-old stop for a croissant," Hayward told the St. John's Morning Show.

"I was kind of more shocked, because you don't expect a bus driver to say there's an active shooter, and get off the bus."

Hayward said the passengers calmly filed off the busand were givenfree bus transfers. The time stamp on his transfer said 3:04 p.m., which was just 20 minutes after the first gunshots were reported.

At first Haywarddidn't know where to go, but with his daughter in tow he decided to just start walking in theopposite direction of the attack.

He said while he's used to dealing with intense situations through his job as a news photographer, being in a major city during a terrorist attackwith his daughter at his sidewas unfamiliar territory.

Nothing you can do

Hayward said he spent the night after the attack looking at different images online of what had happened, and that's when it set in just how close they had come to being right in the middle of it all.

"There was a lot of mayhem on that bridge, and it makes you think, 'Wow, you really wouldn't have seen it all unfold,'" he said.

"You think, 'God, if I had her [my daughter] there, what would you have done?'There's almost nothing you can do.You're on a bridge and you're trapped."

Hayward said his wife is also in Londonbut was in another part of the city at the time of the attack. He called her to reassure her that their daughter was safe, and since then his daughter has been seeings news reports and asking questions about what happened.

"She's a pretty calm nine-year-old, and a few hours later she was saying, 'I hope police catch and kill that guy,'" he said.