Police who shot terrorist dead ‘feared suicide blast’

POLICE marksmen shot dead the London Bridge terror attack ringleader while he lay handcuffed on the ground because they feared he was about to detonate a suicide vest, an inquest heard.

Armed officers first shot Khuram Butt and his two accomplices ten minutes after the men had killed eight and injured 48.

As Butt lay injured, PC Tim Andrews cuffed him and then spotted what appeared to be explosives taped to his body. The unarmed officer quickly moved away and warned his colleagues about the vest.

And when armed colleagues noticed that Butt was still moving, they killed him with a second barrage of bullets. It was only later they learnt the vests were fake, the Old Bailey inquest into the atrocity was told.

PC Andrews, who was in plain clothes, told how he watched Butt run towards an armed officer by Borough Market.

He said: ‘The officer raised his gun, shot him. He fell to the floor and one of the officers was shouting “cuffs, cuffs”.’ Butt, who was wearing an Arsenal football shirt, had his hands clenched on his chest and was covered in blood when the policeman approached him. PC Andrews said: ‘He was groaning and moving his eyes. His eyes were open and rolled from side to side.

‘I just put the cuffs directly on. As I looked down, around his waist I could see he had a brown belt and some plastic bottles that appeared to have been gaffer-taped. I said, “Have you seen what he’s got around his waist? We need to get everyone back”.’

Simon Edwards, who was drinking with friends in a nearby pub, told the hearing that Butt ‘had canisters down his torso’. He said: ‘I thought it was some kind of bomb. I heard a volley of bullets. I could see he was looking at the police officers, I heard the gunfire and dropped to my knees.’ One of the bullets came through the window of the Wheatsheaf pub and grazed customer Neil McLelland’s head, seriously injuring him.

Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, launched a van and knife attack on June 3, 2017. Before being shot dead by police, the terrorists murdered Christine Archibald, 30, and Xavier Thomas, 45, with a van and fatally stabbed Sara Zelenak, 21, Sebastien Belanger, 36, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, Kirsty Boden, 28, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39.

The inquest hearing continues.