A British MP is being hailed as a hero for trying to resuscitate the police officer who was fatally stabbed in Wednesday’s attack outside the U.K. Parliament.

Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and Africa, was pictured giving first aid to the wounded officer as other emergency personnel surrounded the scene. One Associated Press photo showed a distraught Ellwood kneeling over the victim, with blood smeared on his forehead and cheeks.

Ellwood, a former soldier in the British Army whose brother was killed in the Bali terror attack in 2002, told AP that he tried in vain to save the police officer.

"I tried to stem the flow of blood and give mouth to mouth while waiting for the medics to arrive but I think he had lost too much blood," Ellwood said. "He had multiple wounds, under the arm and in the back."

The officer was one of four people killed, including the assailant, in an attack that also involved a vehicle plowing into people on London's Westminster Bridge.

Ellwood’s efforts to save the officer were praised online by his colleagues, police, Londoners and people around the world.

With files from The Associated Press