Terrorists hit London
12 arrested in night of terror; IS claims attack
LONDON — British police arrested a dozen people Sunday in a widening terrorism investigation after attackers using a van and large knives turned a balmy evening of nightlife into a bloodbath and killed seven people in the heart of London. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
Although the attackers were also dead, authorities raced to determine whether they had accomplices, and Prime Minister Theresa May warned that the country faced a new threat from copycat attacks.
The assault unfolded over a few terrifying minutes late Saturday, starting when a rented van veered off the road and barrelled into pedestrians on busy London Bridge. Three men then got out of the vehicle with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market until they were shot dead by police.
“They went ‘This is for Allah,’ and they had a woman on the floor. They were stabbing her,” witness Gerard Vowls said.
Florin Morariu, a Romanian chef who works in the Bread Ahead bakery, said he saw people running. Then two people approached another person and “began to stick the knife in ... and then I froze and I didn’t know what to do.”
He said he managed to get near one attacker and “hit him around the head” with a bread basket.
“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they (police) threw a grenade . ... and then I ran,” he said.
London police said officers killed the attackers within eight minutes of arriving at the scene.
Islamic State’s statement Sunday from its Aamaq news agency claimed the group’s “fighters” were responsible, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
Amid the violence and fear were stories of compassion and heroism. The British Transport Police said one of their officers, among the first to arrive, took the attackers on armed only with his baton and was seriously wounded. He was later described as being in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Witnesses described passers-by threw chairs and beer glasses at the attackers trying to stop them.
Richard Angell, who was in a restaurant, said he looked out and saw “a guy who is throwing a table at somebody, and it’s very unclear about what is happening. And it turns out to be a heroic guy who saw what was happening and just bombarded these terrible cowardly people with stuff.”
Vowls also saw people striking back at the attackers and said he joined in.
“I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!’ ” he told The Associated Press. “Then I was screaming at them, picking up bottles from a beer barrel. I was just throwing it at them, trying to get them to chase me so I could get them out into the main road where the police could see them and obviously take them down.”