Officer chased attacker after his colleague was stabbed

A BRITISH Transport Police (BTP) officer has told how he chased the three terrorists behind the London Bridge attack after his colleague was stabbed in the eye.

Pc Leon McLeod, 29, ran after Youssef Zaghba, Khuram Butt and Rachid Redouane as they carried out their deadly knife attack, unaware of the condition of his fellow officer.

He told the Press Association: “I thought he was OK at first. I still wish I could have done a bit more. It is still quite surreal.

“Unfortunately, all I had was my baton. That was actually the first time I have had to use it.”

Asked if he realised what was happening, Pc McLeod replied: “I didn’t really have time to think about it, even after my colleague was taken away. That was a good thing, I suppose.

“Even when the bullets started going I didn’t think about what was actually going on.”

Pc McLeod, who joined the force two years ago, said he and the injured officer – who has not been named – were on the same intake, adding he was happy to have him by his side on the night.

He said the eight minutes it took for the incident to be over felt “like forever” and when he checked his watch he thought “is that it?”

Fellow BTP officers Alfred Iswa, 51, and Lee Crook, who turned 36 on the night of the attack, described how they tended their injured colleague.

Pc Iswa said: “As soon as I got there, I could see blood was coming out of his face, near the eye.

“I was trying to help him and he pointed to his baton towards the attacker and said ‘get him’. Even when injured, he was trying to fight.”

He added that he checked his colleague’s body for other injuries and found he had a slash to his left thigh.

Together with Pc Crook and a member of the public, they loaded him on to an emergency stretcher, ready to carry him to Guy’s Hospital.

But a passing police van flashed them and the injured officer was taken to Kings Hospital.

Describing how he got to the scene, Pc Crook said: “I got on the train from Lewisham. I wasn’t expecting it to stop at London Bridge. I was ready to pull the emergency alarm and jump out.”

All three men returned to work on Monday, saying they wanted to get “back to normal as soon as possible”.

They spoke as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall met members of the emergency services who were the first to respond to the terror attack.

Pc McLeod said it felt “odd” meeting the royal couple at the Metropolitan Police’s Central Communications Command as so many people had been involved in the response to the attack.