Incident is the latest in wave of violence
THE London Bridge incident has chilling echoes of one of the worst terror attacks in recent years, when three armed men drove at pedestrians on the bridge before running amok in nearby Borough Market.
The previous attack, on June 3 2017, left eight people dead and 48 others injured before the attackers, Khuram Butt (27), Rachid Redouane (30) and Youssef Zaghba (22) were shot dead by police.
That year was one of the bloodiest for terrorism in the UK in recent times. On March 22, 2017 five people were killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster. Khalid Masood drove a hire car over Westminster Bridge mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians before crashing into railings outside the Palace of Westminster.
He stabbed Pc Keith Palmer (48) to death. Also killed in the atrocity were US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea (31) and Britons Aysha Frade (44) and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes. Masood was shot dead by police.
One of the UK’s most deadly terrorist attacks occurred on May 22, 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a suicide belt at the Manchester Arena.
The attack took place as a crowd of music fans left an Ariana Grande concert at the venue, leaving 22 people, including seven children, dead. A further 260 people were seriously injured.
On June 19, 2017, one man died and several others were injured when Darren Osborne (47) rammed his van into worshippers near a mosque in Finsbury Park, north London.
Osborne, of no fixed address in Cardiff, was jailed for at least 43 years after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder.
More than 50 people were injured when a device partially exploded on a District line train at Parsons Green on September 15, 2017. Ahmed Hassan (18) was jailed for at least 34 years for planting the bomb.
On New Year’s Eve last year a couple in their 50s suffered stab wounds after being attacked at Manchester’s Victoria Station.
Mahdi Mohamud, who also attacked a police officer, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 11 years earlier this week after he pleaded guilty to one terror offence and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the station attack.
In recent weeks the terror threat level was lowered to “substantial” from “severe”. That decision is likely to be reviewed in the wake of the latest London Bridge incident.