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London Bridge: Fatalities reported after two terrorist attacks in capital Saturday night turns to deadly horror as terrorists strike on London Bridge
(35 minutes later)
London is reeling after armed police scrambled to respond to two incidents that have been declared as acts of terrorism with six people reported to have been killed and at least 20 left injured less than a week before the election. Britain has been sent reeling after its capital city was attacked by armed men who launched an attack that left six people dead and the country stunned less than a week before the General Election.
Police advised people to either run or hide in a place of safety, as they rushed to deal first with reports of a van hitting a number of people on London Bridge. Prime Minister Theresa May is to chair an an emergency security meeting this morning after Metropolitan Police confirmed they were treating attacks on London Bridge and at Borough Market – locations less than half-a-mile apart – as terror incidents. The London Ambulance Service said it had taken 20 people to various hospitals.
Witnesses first reported seeing up to half-a-dozen people injured, before police confirmed shortly afterwards that they were responding to a second incident in Borough Market. A third reported incident in Vauxhall was later confirmed to be unrelated. Police confirmed the fatalities in a statement early this morning. They added that they believed three people were involved in the attack all of whom who had been shot dead by firearms officers at Borough Market – but would give no further details.
Armed police and emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scenes of the two closely situated incidents, which happened sometime after 10pm, as the capital was full of people enjoying themselves. On London Bridge, eyewitnesses reported seeing several people lying injured on the pavement or the middle of the road, after a white van began mowing people down some time after 10pm. 
The Metropolitan Police meanwhile said in a tweet: “Please remain calm, but be alert & vigilant. We are using all necessary skills & resources at #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket #Vauxhall.” Police said the suspects then made their way to Borough Market and started attacking people with people with knives. There were reports of Londoners out for a Saturday night, fending off the attackers with chairs and glasses.
Prime Minister Theresa May released a statement shortly after the incidents, saying: “Following updates from police and security officials, I can confirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism. The Met's Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said one of the injured was an on-duty British Transport Police officer, who was stabbed trying to fend off the attacker. His injuries are described as serious but no life-threatening.
“This is a fast moving investigation. I want to express my huge gratitude to the police and emergency services who are on the scene. Our thoughts are with those who are caught up in these dreadful events.”  Pc Rowley said the suspects were wearing what appeared to be suicide vests, but these were later revealed to be fakes.
Ms May is expected to chair an emergency security meeting on Sunday morning, according to the Associated Press. A taxi driver told the BBC: “A van came from London Bridge itself, went between the traffic light system and rammed it towards the steps.
​Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn published a statement reading: "Brutal and shocking incidents reported in London. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Thank you to the emergency services." “It knocked loads of people down. Then three men got out with long blades, 12 inches long and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random.”
The drama that rocked the nation’s capital came just days before the country is due to hold its General Election on 8 June, and less than two weeks before a homemade bomb was detonated at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande. The Metropolitan Police said in a tweet: “Please remain calm, but be alert & vigilant. We are using all necessary skills & resources at #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket #Vauxhall.” 
In the aftermath of that incident, which killed 23 adults and children, there were some suggestions that the election should be postponed. In what was widely seen as a determination that life should carry on as normally as possible, a decision was taken for election to proceed. The attack came just days before the country goes to the polls in the General Election on 8 June, and less than two weeks after a 22-year-old man detonated a homemade bomb at the Manchester Arena shortly after the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 23 people. The 23-year-old American singer was among those who sent her sympathies to London on last night.
London Ambulance Service has confirmed at least 20 people have been taken to six hospitals across London. Photographs taken outside The Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market appeared to show two men on the road, being stood over by police. Reports suggested the two men were suspects. It is not clear whether they are alive or dead in the photographs, but one of the men appeared to be wearing some sort of canisters around his waist.
A police officer at the scene of the incident on London Bridge, who sounded in an emotional state, told people near the area: “It's not a laughing matter. It's not something to be recorded, people have died.” With confirmation that more than one person was involved in the attack, it is of deep concern to the police and security services, as it would indicate a level of planning and organisation many times more serious than than involved in the kind of lone attacker incident seen outside Westminster in March, when 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement, injuring more than 50 people, four of them fatally.
The force confirmed that armed officers had responded to the incident at Borough Market. Cell phone video posted on social media showed police entering a bar and ordered people on to the floor. Similar attacks in Berlin, Nice, Brussels and Paris, have been carried out by militants over the past couple of years.
"Get down, get down," the officers could be heard to saying. It was initially reported that police believed a third incident, in Vauxhall, said to be a stabbing, was linked to the events on London Bridge. It was subsequently reported this was the case.
Transport for London (TfL) said the bridge has been closed in both directions "at the request of police" due to a “major police incident”. Owen Evans, 39, was in the Wheatsheaf pub on Stoney Street near Borough Market on Saturday night, with friends, when shooting broke out nearby:
Bus routes were being diverted and the neighbouring Southwark Bridge has also been shut, it added. “I was in the back of the pub. A wave of about 30 people ran in and tried to get into the cellar or cupboard. Then there were shots outside. They didn’t seem real like a kid letting off firecrackers. We saw police lights and everyone got down under a table. People turned tables over,” he told the Guardian.
BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on the bridge at the time of the incident, said the van was driven by a man and was “probably travelling at about 50 miles an hour”. “We waited about 10 minutes or so, with several shots every couple of minutes. Someone at the front of the pub had been shot it’s speculation but we thought it was by accident, there were bullet holes in the windows.”
“I'd say there are about four severely injured people. They all have paramedics assisting them at the moment.” A chef from an Italian restaurant on the edge of borough market told The Independent he heard shouting and ran into the basement with the customers.
She added that a French woman was among the injured and who told her she did not know where the two people who had been with her were. “There were people all outside the restaurant,” said the chef, who asked not to be named. “One had been stabbed in the back, others in their legs. They were bleeding. We were on our way out and then we heard gunshots from the other way.”
She later reported seeing a man being arrested by police. She said he was handcuffed and had his shirt off. He added: “The people near the person called for a medic, shouting: ‘He’s f***ing bleeding to death, we need a doctor.’ The bar staff were amazing, I think they locked the door so no one got in.”
Another witness, Spectator journalist Will Heaven, tweeted: “It seemed south side of London Bridge epicentre of what seems a terrorist attack. We have been escorted by police from bridge. A couple of New Zealand tourists from Auckland said they were coming out of London Bridge station when heard shots.
“What I saw: injured pedestrians, first responders, armed police, people running north.” “It sounded like a dozen but we didn't know if it was a gun or Taser,” said the woman. “We came down the escalators from The Shard and police were shouting ‘get back, for your own safety get back’.”
Deputy editor of the Sunday Times, Sarah Baxter, tweeted that reporters for the newspaper witnessed “several pedestrians mown down as van weaved across road.” The Metropolitan Police confirmed at least one armed officer had opened fire during the attack on Borough Market. In information posted on Twitter they said: “Armed officers responded and shots have been fired.”
Anyone living in cordoned off areas near London Bridge are being told by police to find somewhere else to stay for the night. Ms May said that “following updates from police and security officials, I can confirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism”.
She said it was a fast-moving investigation and her thoughts were with “those who are caught up in these dreadful events”. The Prime Minister’s office said she would chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee this morning. 
London mayor Sadiq Khan condemned the “barbaric and horrific” attack as “deliberate and cowardly”.
US President Donald Trump used Twitter to offer help to Britain and also to push his demand for tougher screening and a end to immigration.
“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U.K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS,” Mr Trump said in one of two tweets.
“We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety.”
The Manchester bombing on 22 May 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.