Hands on heads, the harrowing walk to safety
quite a lot.’ Jag Sandue said: ‘there were people throwing chairs and glasses outside and I thought it might just be a fight.
‘then I realised it was more than that, people were running. Next thing we know, they’re in our restaurant. People were screaming, “they’ve got knives”.’
He said a man behind him was cut by one of the suspects in the chaos, with people running to the back of the restaurant.
diners including a terrified heavily pregnant woman hid in the kitchen.
A taxi driver, Aksha Patel, said later that one of his passengers, an unnamed woman, had courageously blocked the door of the Black & Blue restaurant to delay the attackers’ entrance, allowing many people to get to safety. By the time the three attackers left the restaurant, they were less than a minute from being shot dead.
A chilling video shows them calmly sauntering down Stoney Street back towards the main road. Filmed as they passed the Market Porter pub, they were wearing canisters that police later confirmed were mock bombs.
the terrifying clip shows the men walking slowly, apparently feeling indestructible. one had an Arsenal football top, another was dressed in a dark hoodie and third was in a striped jumper.
outside the Wheatsheaf pub, armed officers confronted them.
Nearby, at least four SAS troopers were understood to closing in, with 20 more special forces on their way in unmarked navy blue dauphin helicopters, including bomb disposal officers and electronic countermeasures experts.
Eight police marksmen fired more than 50 rounds at the trio, but there were fears another attacker remained at large.
A military source on the ground on Saturday night said: ‘It was a very confused picture but when the teams arrived they were able to very quickly identify the three targets, but there was concern at least one person, the driver of the van, had fled.’
this later proved a false alarm, but the terror was not over.
Police put the whole area in lockdown as reports came in of further incidents – which turned out to be unrelated.
Lottie Young said she and her sister were among dozens who hid in a bar’s basement for two hours before police rescued them.
As bars were evacuated, terrified revellers were made to walk with their hands on their heads because of fears that terrorists could have been trying to mingle with them.
one officer directed people to safety, warning: ‘You’re going to see some dead people, do you understand? Sorry to shout but we’ve had four people shot.’
When a man complained he could not get to his parked car, the officer replied: ‘I don’t give a f*** about your car.’