‘Enough is enough,’ May says of attacks
LONDON — British police arrested a dozen people Sunday in a widening terrorism investigation after attackers using a van and large knives killed seven people in the heart of London on Saturday night. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
Although the attackers were also dead, authorities raced to determine whether they had accomplices, and Prime Minister Theresa May warned that the country faced a new threat from copycat attacks.
The assault unfolded over a few minutes late Saturday, starting when a rented van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on London Bridge. Three men then got out of the vehicle with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market. The attackers were shot dead by police.
“They went ‘This is for Allah,’ and they had a woman on the floor. They were stabbing her,” witness Gerard Vowls said.
Florin Morariu, a Romanian chef who works in the Bread Ahead bakery, said he saw people running and some fainting. Then two people approached another person and “began to stick the knife in … and then I froze and I didn’t know what to do.”
He said he managed to
get near one attacker and “hit him around the head” with a bread basket.
“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they [police] threw a grenade … and then I ran,” he said.
London police said officers killed the attackers within eight minutes of arriving at the scene. Eight officers fired some 50 rounds, said Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the force’s head of counterterrorism.
The Islamic State’s statement Sunday from its Aamaq news agency claimed the group’s “fighters” were responsible, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The Islamic State group has urged supporters to weaponize vehicles in attacks against the West.
It was the third attack in Britain this year that Islamic State has claimed — after a similar attack on Westminster Bridge in March and the Manchester concert bombing two weeks ago — and one of several involving vehicles in Europe, including last year’s Bastille Day rampage in the French city of Nice.
The three attackers Saturday were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, but the belts turned out to be fake. Investigators were working to determine whether others assisted them, Rowley said.
A bystander was also wounded by the gunfire, but the civilian’s injuries were not believed to be critical.
Forty-eight people, including two police officers, were treated at hospitals. Twenty-one people remained in critical condition Sunday. Among the wounded were German, French and Spanish citizens, officials said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Canadian was among the dead. A French national was also confirmed dead.
RAIDS NET 12 ARRESTS
Counterterrorism officers raided several addresses in Barking, an east London suburb, and arrested 12 people there Sunday, police said.
Neighbors at the site of one raid in Barking said a man who lived there resembled one of the attackers shown in news photographs.
“He’s lived here for about three years,” Damien Pettit said. “He’s one of our neighbors. I’ve said hello in passing more than 50, 60 occasions. He has two young kids. He was a very nice guy.”
Armed officers also conducted a raid in the East Ham area of the city. Video showed police shouting at someone: “Get on the balcony. Stand up and show us your hands!”
The rampage was the third major attack in Britain in the past three months, including a similar vehicle and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in March that left five people dead.
On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, in northwest England. Grande and other stars performed Sunday night at a benefit concert for victims under tight security in Manchester.
“I don’t feel or smell or hear or see any fear in this building. All we feel here tonight is love, resilience, positivity,” said Pharrell Williams, who performed alongside Miley Cyrus.
Police in Manchester released without charge a 23-yearold man who had been arrested as part of that investigation.
Greater Manchester Police said that leaves 11 men in custody for questioning. The men are being held on suspicion of violating the Terrorism Act. They have not been identified or charged.
Seven other suspects detained after the May 22 suicide bombing were released without charges earlier.
The bomb was detonated by 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a Briton of Libyan descent who died in the blast.
May said the attacks were not directly connected, “but we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face” as “terrorism breeds terrorism” and attackers copy one another. She said five credible plots have been disrupted since March.
“It is time to say, enough is enough,” she said.
“There is — to be frank — far too much tolerance of extremism in our country,” May said. Stamping it out “will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations.”
May said Thursday’s election wouldn’t be halted by the latest attack, because “violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.”
Opposition Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn concurred, saying “those who wish to harm our people, divide our communities and attack our democracy will not succeed.” Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said “the remainder of this campaign must be a collective showing of defiance and pride in our democratic values.”
Only the right-wing U.K. Independence Party, which had no members of Parliament in the 650-seat House of Commons before the election was called, declined to pause campaigning. Leader Paul Nuttall said, “I refuse to suspend campaigning because this is precisely what the
extremists would want us to do.”
Britain’s official terrorism threat level was raised from “severe” to “critical” after the Manchester attack, meaning an attack may be imminent. Several days later it was lowered again to “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Sunday that the level would remain at severe because police believe there are no perpetrators still on the loose.
President Donald Trump said Sunday he will do whatever is necessary to protect the United States from a “vile enemy” that he says has waged war on innocents for too long, vowing: “This bloodshed must end, this bloodshed will end.”
Earlier Sunday, Trump had criticized London’s mayor after he sought to reassure residents about a stepped-up police presence after the attack, arguing on Twitter for leaders to “stop being politically correct” and focus on “security for our people.”
The mayor’s spokesman said he was too busy to respond to Trump’s “ill-informed” tweet.
In a series of tweets that began late Saturday, Trump also pushed his stalled travel ban, mocked gun control supporters and pledged that the United States will be there to help London and the United Kingdom.
Trump challenged London Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed.” Khan spoke those words in a television interview Sunday in the context of reassuring Londoners about an increased police presence they might see.
“No reason to be alarmed,” Khan said, describing a more visible presence as “one of things the police and all of us need to do to make sure we are as safe as we possibly can be.”
Trump wasn’t satisfied and responded Sunday with a trio of tweets:
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”
Trump ended with: “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!”
SCENE OF PANIC
London Bridge and a large area on the south bank of the River Thames remained cordoned off Sunday, and police told people to avoid the area.
Hours earlier, the area packed with bars and restaurants around Borough Market had been a scene of panic, as people barricaded themselves in pubs and restaurants or fled through the streets.
Medics treated the wounded near the market. Police officers yelled at people to run from the area, and blasts were heard as officers performed a series of controlled explosions.
Renan Marquese, a sous-chef at a tapas restaurant, said he was working when he heard chaotic sounds outside.
“When I open the door I see three dead people on the floor,” he said. “People running everywhere, police shouting to run away.”
He said he helped a man and his partner, even taking the woman into his arms because she was too upset to walk properly. He said it took him 20 minutes to carry her across the bridge, stumbling all the way. “It was really scary,” he said. Amid the violence and fear were stories of compassion and heroism. The British Transport Police said one of its officers, among the first to arrive, took the attackers on armed only with his baton and was seriously wounded. He was later described as being in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Witnesses described how passers-by threw chairs and beer glasses at the attackers in an attempt to stop them.
Richard Angell, who was in a restaurant, said he looked out and saw “a guy who is throwing a table at somebody, and it’s very unclear about what is happening. And it turns out to be a heroic guy who saw what was happening and just bombarded these terrible cowardly people with stuff.”
Vowls also saw people striking back at the attackers and said he joined in.
“I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!’” he said. Then he picked up a chair.
“I chucked it, but I think I missed one of them, and then I picked up a stool, and I threw it at him. And he looked at me. He started running towards me, and then he decided not to.
“Then I was screaming at them, picking up bottles from a beer barrel. I was just throwing it at them, trying to get them to chase me so I could get them out into the main road where the police could see them and obviously take them down.”