2 dead in UK terror attack
Police kill assailant amid chaos on London Bridge
LONDON — Two people were fatally stabbed, and the knife-wielding assailant shot dead by police, in a chaotic midafternoon attack Friday on the busy London Bridge.
Police said they are treating the assault as a terrorist attack.
Several victims were stabbed, two of them fatally, said Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, at a briefing at New Scotland Yard late Friday.
“This is a very fast-moving, dynamic investigation,” she said.
Police said the attacker was Usman Khan, a 28-year-old whowas released on probation last year after serving six years for terrorism offenses.
Police said Khan was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offenses and released in December 2018 “on license,” which means he had to meet certain conditions or face recall to prison. Several British media outlets reported that he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
Police said the incident started at Fishmongers’ Hall, which stands beside the entrance to the London Bridge. According to the Times of London, the attacker was a guest at a conference on prisoner rehabilitation that was being hosted at the hall by Cambridge University.
Dick said that officers were working “full tilt to understand exactly what has happened and whether anyone else was involved.” Detectives would also work “around the clock to identify those who lost their lives,” she said.
Police said the assailant died at the scene. Witnesses described him as wearing a “suicide vest,” but police said it was a “hoax explosive device.”
Later Friday, Dutch police said that three people had been wounded in a
stabbing on a crowded shopping street in The Hague. Police said that they were searching for a suspect, whom they identified as a man in a jogging suit from 45 - to 50-years old.
The victims were all minors. It was unclear whether any of their wounds were life-threatening or whether they might have been hurt when the crowds of holiday shoppers panicked, police said.
A Dutch police spokeswoman said it was too early to say whether a terror motive was to blame for the attack in The Hague or if there was any connection to the attack in London.
Onlookers in London said members of the public wrestled with the assailant and were fighting with him as police arrived. Three members of the public remain hospitalized.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan hailed the bravery of ordinary people.
“What’s remarkable about the images we have seen is the breathtaking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger, not knowing what confronted them,” he said.
Khan noted that people would not have known at the time that the device worn by the attacker was fake. “They really are the best of us, another example of the bravery and heroism of ordinary Londoners,” Khan said.
The bridge across the River Thames in central London is a major artery — and was the scene in June 2017 of a terrorist attack in which assailants identified as sympathizers of the Islamic State rammed pedestrians with a van, then sought out victims to stab. In that attack, the three assailants also wore fake explosive vests and were fatally shot after killing eight people and wounding 48.
A BBC reporter, John McManus, said Friday that he saw “a group of men involved in a fight on the bridge.”
“There appeared to be a fight going on on the other side of the bridge, with several men attacking one man … Police then arrived, and shots were fired,” he said, according to the broadcaster.
Amateur video showed crowds running away from London Bridge, as others leaped from their stopped automobiles into the roadway. Another clip showed police dragging a man away from another on the ground.
Amanda Hunter, an American living in London who was on a bus about to cross London Bridge, told the BBC that when she looked out the window, “I just saw these three police officers going over to a man. I believe he was carrying, maybe, it seemed like there was something in his hand. I’m not 100% sure, but then one of the police officers shot him.”
From his offices at 10 Downing St., Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed, “Anybody involved in this crime and these attacks will be hunted down and will be brought to justice.” It was unclear whether Johnson was suggesting that the attacker had accomplices or assistance.
Johnson said Britain would “never be cowed or divided or intimidated by this sort of attack, and our British values will prevail.”
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party leader and Johnson’s challenger in upcoming December elections, said earlier: “Shocking reports from London Bridge. My thoughts are with those caught up in the incident.”
Britain is in the middle of a general election, and voters go to the polls in two weeks’ time. It’s unclear whether or how the latest attack might affect the race. Both Johnson and Corbyn said that they would briefly suspend campaigning.
Associated Press contributed.