Attackers plow van into London Bridge crowd
> Multiple stabbings at nearby Borough Market
LONDON: Assailants drove a van into pedestrians at high speed on London Bridge on Saturday night before stabbing revellers on nearby streets, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens in what police suspect was a terrorist attack.
Armed police rushed to the scene and within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call shortly after 10pm had shot dead the three male attackers in the Borough Market area near the bridge.
At least 48 people were injured in the attack which came days ahead of a parliamentary election on Thursday.
“We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism,” Prime Minister Theresa May said in front of her Downing Street office, where flags flew at half-mast.
“Perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots ... and not even as lone attackers radicalised online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”
She said Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy needed to be reviewed, adding: “It is time to say enough is enough.”
Less than two weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester.
In March, in an attack similar to Saturday’s, a man killed five people after driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in central London.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack.
London Bridge is a major transport hub and nearby Borough Market is a warren of alleyways packed with bars and restaurants always bustling on a Saturday night.
The three attackers on Saturday had been wearing what looked like explosive vests that were later found to have been hoaxes.
The BBC showed a photograph of two possible attackers shot by police, one of whom had canisters strapped to his body.
The London Ambulance Service said 48 people had been taken to five hospitals across the city and a number of others had been treated at the scene for minor injuries.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said some of those who had been injured were critical.
Witnesses described a white van careering into pedestrians on the bridge.
“It looked like he was aiming for groups of people,” Mark Roberts, 53, a management consultant, told Reuters.
He saw at least six on the ground after the van veered on and off the pavement. “It was horrendous,” he said. A taxi driver told the BBC that three men got out of the van with long knives and “went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people”.
BBC radio said witnesses saw people throwing tables and chairs at the attackers to protect themselves. – Reuters