LONDON UNDER SIEGE
6 dead, 30 hurt in London Bridge terror spree Three attackers slain after van, knife rampage
A TERROR RAMPAGE rocked London Saturday night when a van plowed into pedestrians on a famed bridge before men with butcher knives jumped out and stabbed revelers at a nearby market.
At least six people were killed and more than 30 wounded after the attacks at the London Bridge and Borough Market, authorities said.
Police shot dead all three terrorists, who were wearing fake suicide vests and had shouted “Allah” while slashing their victims, police and witnesses said.
“This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
“There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”
Metropolitan Police said it was treating the spasm of violence as “a terrorist incident.”
The two-pronged assault began about 10 p.m. local time when a white Hertz van mounted a sidewalk and barreled into pedestrians walking along the span in the heart of the capital city.
“A white van came speeding — probably about 50 mph — (and) veered off the road into the crowds of people who were walking along the pavement,” said BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on the bridge at the time.
As victims writhed on the ground behind them, three men wielding 12-inch blades burst out of the vehicle and slashed people at random, witnesses said.
Witnesses reported hearing the assailants yell “Allah” as they hunted down their unsuspecting victims along a popular swath of bars and cafes.
“I saw a young girl stabbed in the chest,” a cab driver told LBC Radio.
“There was a guy with a really long blade stabbing random people. I told people to turn around and run away. It sickened me to the pit of my stomach. An absolute animal.”
Gunfire broke out after armed cops swarmed the scene.
A photograph captured two men, believed to be the attackers, lying on the ground. One of them was wearing what appeared to be metal canisters strapped to his waist.
The police said all three were wearing fake explosive devices.
The photographer, Gabriele Sciotto, said he saw the suspects running through an alley. Moments later, cops swarmed the scene and opened fire.
“In around like two or five seconds, they shot all the three men down,” Sciotto told BBC.
He added that the devices strapped to the suspect didn’t seem real.
“They looked like just a toy to me,” he said.
The officers killed the suspects eight minutes after the first police call.
Large blasts were heard near the bridge, likely controlled explosions by police, roughly three hours later.
At least 30 people, including a responding transport police officer, were rushed to six hospitals.
The officer suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Several others were treated near London Bridge following the assault, authorities said.
The attacks set off scenes of panic and chaos less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
A witness named Gerard told BBC News he watched helplessly as the men targeted a young woman.
“They were running out going, ‘This is for Allah,’ and they run up and stabbed this girl I don’t know how many times. Ten times, maybe 15 times,” the man said.
“People were yelling, ‘Everybody run, a terrorist, terrorist, run, run run! He’s stabbing everyone!’”
Witness Mark Roberts told CNN that he was on the bridge when the white delivery van came barreling down the road.
It slammed into several people — knocking one person about 20 feet into the air, he said.
The van then swerved into oncoming traffic before hitting a bus stop and coming to a stop, Roberts said.
Taxi driver Vilwar Hussain told the BBC he saw empty alcohol bottles fall out of the van after it crashed on the south side of the bridge spanning the Thames River.
Another witness, Eric Swiguenza, said he was on the bridge when he spotted the van speeding on the wrong side of the road as pedestrians scrambled for their lives.
Swiguenza said he saw the knife-wielding attackers jump out of the vehicle and chase after random people on the street.
“It was a rampage, really,” Swiguenza said. “They were running at people. People were in disbelief. They didn’t really know what was happening.”
Kumi de Costa said she was riding in a taxi with two friends when it turned into the market at the moment when police officers were unloading on the suspects.
“There were loads of shots being fired. Two people were on the floor behind the church with two or three people leaning over them,” de Costa told BBC News.
“About 50 police were pointing guns at us. The cab driver had the laser pointed right at them, our hands were up, we were trying to get out so they shooed us away.”
De Costa said she spotted a man emerge from a restaurant with blood pouring out of his neck.
“There was another man lying on the floor. I don’t know if he was in the recovery position or dead,” she added.
Earlier in the night, police reported a third incident in the Vauxhall section of London but it turned out to be an unrelated stabbing.
President Trump, in the aftermath of the attacks, fired off a tweet about his travel ban.
“We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” it read. “We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”
Saturday’s siege was chillingly similar to a terror attack more than two months ago when a man slammed an SUV into a crowd on the sidewalk along Westminster Bridge in London, killing four people.
After ramming the vehicle into a barrier outside the Houses of Parliament, the driver, 52-yearold Khalid Masood, jumped out and fatally stabbed a police officer. Responding officers shot him dead.
The latest attack came a day before Grande was slated to headline a charity concert in Manchester to raise funds for victims of the May 22 assault.
“Praying for London,” she tweeted Saturday night.