‘Unflinching courage’ of terror police
PREVIOUSLY unseen footage of the London Bridge attack yesterday showed the terrorists advancing on unarmed police officers and hitting one in the face with a bottle.
The three knife-wielding attackers, with mock suicide belts clearly visible, can be seen charging through Borough Market yelling “Allahu akbar” seconds before they were shot dead. They were in the final moments of a 10-minute rampage on June 3 2017, which claimed eight innocent lives and only ended when police unleashed a hail of gunfire.
Yesterday, a jury concluded that the three marksmen from the City of London Police lawfully killed the terror- ists, who “ignored clear warning shouts”. The firearms officers, named only as BX44, BX45 and BX46, were praised for their “unflinching courage” during the 10-second Stoney Street confrontation. In a narrative conclusion, jurors said the men “feared for their lives” as Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, ran towards them with knives.
A video taken by witness Paul Clarke, played at both Old Bailey, captured the closing stages of the attack in unparalleled detail. Butt and Zaghba are seen more clearly than in any images published before, wearing an Arsenal shirt and black hooded jumper respectively, while brandishing 12-inch knives. Police constables Sam Balfour, Bartek Tchorzewski and Ian Rae were among those who initially stopped the attackers. Butt is shown viciously launching a glass bottle into the face of PC Tchorzewski, before the two attackers are joined by Redouane as they give chase and yell “Allahu akbar”.
The officers regroup on Cathedral Street and run back through the market, joined by two bakers armed with brooms and empty bread baskets.
At Stoney Street, they scatter as a burst of police gunfire ends the attack.
With all three attackers down, the armed unit quickly retreated at the sight of the suicide belts, and were joined by firearms officers from the Metropolitan Police. Further shots were then fired whenever the grounded men moved amid fears they were about to detonate their devices.
After the conclusion of the hearing, the official spokesman for the Prime Minister, said: “Had it not been for the professionalism, speed and bravery of those who responded and defended themselves and others, many more could have suffered.” Karen Baxter, the commander of the City of London Police, said the armed officers displayed “unflinching courage that is remarkable”. Cressida Dick, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the atrocity showed “the very worst” and “the very best” of humanity.
Chief coroner Mark Lucraft had directed the jury that their conclusion was the only “safe” one.
The inquest into the shooting of the London Bridge terrorists reached the only conclusion it could. The jury found that the three attackers, who murdered eight people in 2017, were lawfully killed by firearms officers.
The verdict tells only a fraction of the story. That tragic summer night witnessed great bravery by members of the public and unarmed police officers who confronted the terrorists after they had ploughed into pedestrians on the bridge and then began stabbing people at random.
They were mostly young foreign nationals out on a warm June evening in a vibrant part of Europe’s biggest city whose lives were cut short during what the coroner called in an earlier inquest 10 minutes of “high and terrible drama”. It followed the bombing of a pop concert in Manchester and the attack on Westminster Bridge just weeks earlier.
Previously unseen video footage from London Bridge shows two bakers setting off in pursuit of the killers armed with a broom and plastic crates. A police officer in shirt sleeves and protected by just a stab vest also follows them, as does an off-duty constable in the area at the time.
Within 10 minutes armed police arrived and shot the men after challenging them to drop their weapons. Another officer moved in to handcuff them even though it was initially feared they were wearing suicide vests. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, rightly paid tribute to the “tremendous courage and professionalism” shown by the armed officers. The police and the members of the public who stood up to the terrorists – several of whom died as a result – deserve the highest praise.