Kentish Express Ashford & District

Artist caught up

Exclusive

- By Rachael Woods

An artist has spoken of her experience after being part of a group who were caught up in the London terror attacks carried out earlier this month.

Rowena McWilliams, who runs Smallhythe Studios, Tenterden, was in the Borough Market area on Saturday, June 3, with her husband Mike and two friends Robert Watsham and Judith Dool from Stone-in-Oxney.

The group of friends were on a treasure hunt experience bought as a Christmas present.

They had been searching for clues and had visited a number of London landmarks including the Barbican, St Paul’s and the Millennium Bridge.

A heavy summer shower made them dive for cover in a café before they moved on to Sir Francis Drake’s galleon the Golden Hind, a few minutes’ walk from London Bridge.

The delay meant they narrowly avoided the height of the terror attack.

“We got there about 10 past 10.” said Mrs McWilliams, 60. “I remember hearing screaming and a man shouting ‘someone’s been stabbed – run!’”

The Metropolit­an Police had received the first call about an incident on London Bridge just two minutes earlier at 10.08, after radical extremists Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba had driven a van into pedestrian­s at high speed and then left the vehicle to make their way to Borough Market where they began stabbing people in pubs and restaurant­s with 12-inch knives.

The bloodshed left eight people killed and 48 injured.

Mrs McWilliams added: “I saw a

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom