KNIVES IN THE NIGHT
TOLL RISES AFTER LONDON RAMPAGE AUSSIES CAUGHT IN SHOCKING ATTACK SUSPECTS SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
THE UK is again in mourning after terrorists mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking Saturday night revellers with knives in nearby bars, throwing the city into chaos.
Australian woman Candice Hedge, inset, had her throat slashed in the rampage, before police swooped in and shot dead the three suspected terrorists. Several people died and dozens of others were injured, including Ms Hedge and another Australian.
Last night the toll stood at 10, including the terrorists, with as many as 48 injured. The attack came 12 days after a suicide bomber killed 22 in Manchester.
AN Australian woman is lucky to be alive after having her throat slashed in a terrorist rampage which left 10 people dead and dozens injured.
Three terrorists struck in central London, running over and stabbing people at random before being gunned down by police.
The eight-minute onslaught — London’s third attack in 2½ months — was carried out in and near the busy Borough Market entertainment district just after 10pm on Saturday night when the area was crowded with revellers.
The three terrorists — wearing what appeared to be explosive vests and screaming “this is for Allah’’ — drove a van southbound across London Bridge, mowing down pedestrians on the footpath before getting out of the van and stabbing people at random in Borough, just over the bridge.
Candice Hedge is one of two Australians among at least 48 people injured in the terrifying attack.
Ms Hedge, 31, was dining in London on Saturday night with her boyfriend when she was stabbed in the neck and is now recovering in hospital.
The Brisbane woman wrote on Facebook: “Hey everyone, just so you know im doing ok. Bit of pain but I will survive. Thanks for your thoughts and well wishes. Love to all.”
The hospitality worker moved to London about six months ago.
She had finished working as a waitress at Elliot’s restaurant in London Bridge about 10.30pm and was sitting at the bar having a drink when a man came up behind her and attacked her with a knife.
It’s understood she had her back to the man and he came up behind her, grabbed her head and slashed her throat.
She was briefly in a coma but was awake last night.
Authorities were last night making inquiries about the whereabouts of the second Australian.
The terrifying attack ended at 10.16pm — eight minutes after police received the first call for help — when heavily armed police shot the attackers dead in Stoney St.
Their deaths took the death toll to 10.
Photographs showed one of the dead men on the footpath wearing what appeared to be canisters strapped to his body. Police later said the suicide vests were fake.
Prime Minister Theresa May said it was believed the attacks were “potential acts of terrorism’’ and just before 4am, the Met’s senior counterterrorism police officer, Mark Rowley, affirmed those fears.
“We are treating this as a terrorist incident and a full investigation is already under way, led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command,’’ he said.
“We are reviewing and planning to strengthen our policing stance across London over the forthcoming days and there will be additional police and officers deployed across the capital.’’
The attackers used large knives with 30cm blades and one appeared to be wearing an Arsenal football supporter’s top. They stabbed men and women at random, as bar patrons fought back by pelting them with bar stools and pint glasses.
The trio roamed through the winding streets of the Borough Market district and entered the Black and Blue Steakhouse in Stoney St, slashing and stabbing patrons, before going back on to the street and being confronted by police.
Hundreds of terrified patrons sheltered inside bars and restaurants as managers locked the doors and police issued a “run, hide and tell’’ alert, urging
people not to surrender but to try to get away as fast as they could.
As dawn broke in London, the van used by the attackers remained in place, wedged against a lamppost on the Borough High St, while heavilyarmed police were seen mobilising and probably preparing for raids on associates of the three attackers.
Large parts of London remain cordoned off and train and tube stations were closed around the Southwark, London Bridge and Borough area, south of the Thames and just to the west of the city’s CBD.
Met commissioner Cressida Dick urged people within the cordon to stay inside.
Witness Gerard Vowls said he saw “three Muslim guys’’ stabbing a woman or girl 10-15 times south of London Bridge.
“They started running in all the pubs, all the bars. They were stabbing everyone. I was throwing bottles at them, pint glasses, stools.’’
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spent yesterday speaking with national security advisers and Cabinet.
“Our officials will continue to provide every assistance they can to Australians affected by this shocking attack and their families,” Mr Turnbull said.
He declared Australia’s “absolute solidarity” with Britain.
The attacks occurred five days before the UK general election and saw the Conservatives, Labour and the SNP once again suspending all national election campaigning.
The campaign had been suspended two weeks earlier when a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester.
Mrs May was due to chair an emergency meeting of the national security committee Cobra overnight. The terror threat level in the UK is at its second-highest level, severe, after being dropped from the highest level, critical, after it was briefly raised following the Manchester attacks.
Despite pressure to suspend the election, it is likely to go ahead as planned on Thursday.