The British spirit

Drop of light relief from drinker who didn’t give in

♦a man who was pictured fleeing the scene of the attack with a pint of beer in his hand has been hailed as representing the best of London spirit.

Amid a crowd of people who had been caught up in the tragedy, the man could be seen clutching his half-full beer and evidently managing not to spill a drop.

The picture spread quickly on social media, with those sharing it suggesting it was symbolic of the resilience of people in the capital.

One Twitter user jokingly captioned the picture: “Evacuate? Well, OK. But this beer cost £6 a pint. I’m taking it with me.”

Another said: “This guy is showing that no matter what you’ll never get in the way of an Englishman and his pint.” Photographs showed the men lying dead in the street, their fake suicide belts, clearly visible. Mr Applebee, 24, recalled: “We didn’t know who was shooting who. We looked out and saw three men on the ground with lasers all over these explosive vests. One was outside the Wheatsheaf and two were just opposite us by a fruit and veg place, three or four metres apart.

“The first gunshots went on for about 20 minutes and they were on and off in separate bursts for about 90 minutes.”

Mark Poelmans, 46, an IT consultant from Brussels, was having dinner with his wife in Rabot 1745 in Bedale Street, which runs parallel to Storey Street through the heart of the market, when he saw someone staggering into the road.

“He was bleeding heavily from the back and it looked like he’d been stabbed,” he said. “Then the shooting started. It was so loud, everyone just hit the floor. Some ran to the toilets, some ran into the kitchen area.

“There were three sets of fires. The first was the longest. There was a lot of screaming. The manager was shouting for everyone to come in from the terrace, people hid behind the bar. About 20 minutes later, heavily armed officers came in and told us to run.”

The ordeal over, police called on those inside to come out of Applebee’s with their hands on their heads. Clearly, counter-terrorism officers were uncertain if they had captured the whole gang. “The police just shouted ‘go, go, go’ and we just ran for ages,” said Mr Applebee. “We didn’t know what to do.”