7 die in London terror attack
INT’L COMMNUNITY denounces dastardly act which injures 48
Three knife-wielding attackers in fake suicide vests unleashed a terror rampage in the British capital, plowing a van into pedestrians on the iconic London Bridge before stabbing revellers in a nearby market. The incident left seven people dead for which Prime Minister Theresa May blamed the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism”.
At least 48 people were also injured in the attack that took place on Saturday night around 10 pm, the third terror attack to hit Britain in less than three months and just days before the general election on June 8.
Three attackers drove a white van into crowds on the busy London Bridge and then left the van wielding long knives and attacked people indiscriminately at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market shouting “This is for Allah”, police and witnesses said.
The attack unfolded quickly as armed police rushed to the scene and within eight minutes shot dead the three male attackers who were wearing what looked like explosive vests which later turned out to be fake.
“The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes,” said Mark Rowley, Met Police Assistant Commissioner and the UK’s anti-terrorism lead.
“We are treating this as a terrorist incident and a full investigation is already underway, led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command,” he said, urging people with information and images to contact the police.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack to hit Britain. No details have been released about the suspects and detectives are investigating whether they acted alone.
British counter-terrorism police said they had arrested 12 people in Barking, in east London, in connection with the attack.
The arrests followed a raid by police at a flat owned by one of the three attackers. Police said that “a number of addresses” in Barking were still being searched.
National campaigning for the June 8 general election was suspended for the day as a mark of respect to the victims, but Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that the elections would go ahead as planned.
Speaking outside Downing Street after she chaired the emergency COBRA meeting with senior security chiefs, May said, “Violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.”