OFFICER DESCRIBES
APOLICE officer has described the “pandemonium” of stab victims lying on the pavement bleeding after the London Bridge terror attack – and said colleagues are “on tenterhooks” fearing another atrocity.
Inspector Jim Cole and his team were at Peckham police station about to finish their shift on Saturday, June 3, when a call came in about pedestrians who had been hit by a van.
“Immediately I thought it would be terrorist-related,” the 41-year-old said. We ran down to the yard and started getting the team back in the vans.
“It was like something out of a movie, with police officers running everywhere.
“Everybody was jumping cars, getting cars going.”
Mr Cole found wounded lying on the ground when he arrived at Borough Market minutes later. into
“The people I saw had cuts and what I assumed to be stab injuries,” he said.
“There was somebody on the pavement, there was somebody else who was walking wounded.”
He heard gunshots and loud bangs soon after and had no idea if it was coming from the attackers or his fellow officers.
“From updates on the radio we were aware that people had got out the van and were attacking people in the market,” he said.
“But we didn’t know if they were armed, how many there were, or what the situation was.
“I heard a number of shots ringing out and a lot of shooting going on.
“At that point I didn’t know if the shots were us or potentially the attackers.
“Information came over the radio that they were wearing suicide vests.”
He and his team managed to get around 200 people to the safety of a pub cellar.
“We had the situation of people coming running out of the market, they were in a state of panic – lots of screaming,” Mr Cole said.
“So we literally just grabbed hold of as many as we could and directed them into the basement of the bar.
“I felt that was as reasonably safe a place as we had at the moment rather than roaming the streets.”
He said he could hear his colleagues over the radio “in quite a state of distress” as they desperately called for ambulances.
“On the radio I could hear officers up at London Bridge and outside the Mudlark who were doing CPR and they were calling for ambulances urgently,” he said.
“I would described it as pandemonium really.
“I went down into the basement – there was probably 200 frightened people there, all waiting to find out what happened.
“I felt I needed to say something to try to reassure them and let them know that we would be getting them out of there and they were safe.
“I told them that we had armed officers outside, everyone was safe and there was a nice big round of applause and cheering – that was really good and that felt good.”
The married father of three said the incident was the worst he has seen in 18 years as a policeman.
“I’ve dealt with things over the years – people stabbed or murdered, and death – but it was the sheer scale of it all,” he added.
“I think I just went into autopilot, just kicked in.
“I’ve been a police officer for quite a few years so all those sort of skills kick in and you just get on with it.”
He paid tribute to his colleagues, including Charlie Guenigault, an off-duty officer who was stabbed as he tackled the terrorists with his bare hands.