At least three assailants stabbed passers-by at random after smashing into pedestrians in a van, killing seven people in a “terror attack” in a popular nightlife hub in the London Bridge area on Saturday night before being shot dead by armed police.
Around 48 wounded have been taken to five hospitals across the city by the London Ambulance Service (LAS), whereas a number of others have been treated at the scene for minor injuries, the LAS said in a statement after the attack.
France said two of its citizens were injured in the attack, one seriously. The injured also included a police officer who was one of the first responders on the scene and was stabbed in the face and leg.
As they rampaged through the bars around London Bridge, the attackers wore what looked like suicide vests which turned out to be “hoaxes”, said Britain’s top anti-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.
The BBC showed a photograph of two possible London attackers shot by police, one of whom had canisters strapped to his body.
The assault began when a van veered off the road and plowed into pedestrians on the bridge.
Witnesses say three men fled the van with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market.
Armed police rushed to the scene and shot dead the three male attackers in the Borough Market area near the bridge, as authorities urged Londoners on Twitter to “run, hide, tell” if they were caught up in the violence.
“The suspects had been confronted and shot by police within eight minutes of the first call,” Rowley said.
“We believe that six people have died in addition to the three attackers shot dead by police” in what is being treated as a “terrorist incident”, Rowley said, adding that while they believe all the attackers were killed, the investigation continues.
“We believe three people were involved, but we still have got some more inquiries to do to be 100 per cent confident in that,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police force has declared the attacks as “terrorist incidents”, and police specialists have begun collecting evidence.
Hours after the attack the area remained sealed off and patrolled by armed police and counter-terrorism officers.
Streets around London Bridge and Borough Market, fashionable districts packed with bars and restaurants, would have been busy with people on a Saturday night out.
BBC showed dozens of people, evidently caught up in the attack, being escorted through a police cordon with their hands on their heads.
London’s Thames river police said it was working with the lifeboat rescue service to help evacuate people caught up in the attack.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Sunday some of those injured in the attacks on the city are in “critical” condition.
Khan said that Londoners should all remain vigilant as the terrorist threat level is severe. But he added: “I’m reassured we are one of the safest global cities in the world.”
Khan says the militants want to disrupt Britain’s democracy and hamper plans for voting in the general election June 8.
He praised emergency services and said police would make a statement after an emergency cabinet meeting.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said that the “terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism.”
May plans to chair an emergency security Cabinet session today to deal with the crisis.
Britain’s Conservative Party announced that it is suspending national campaigning ahead of the general election as a result of the attacks.
May’s party said there will be no national campaigning Sunday. It is not clear if campaigning will resume in the final days before the vote.
The opposition Labour Party has not yet announced its plans for Sunday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which comes less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.
The incident bore similarities to a March attack on Westminster Bridge, west of London Bridge, in which a man killed five people after driving into a crowd of pedestrians before stabbing a police officer in the grounds of parliament.
The Manchester bombing on May 22 was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.
