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London police shoot dead three suspects after rampage kills seven
Police race to establish if London Bridge attackers were part of network
(about 1 hour later)
At least seven people were killed and 48 injured after three attackers drove a van into crowds on London Bridge and then went on a stabbing rampage in nearby Borough Market.
Investigators are racing to find out how Britain’s counter-terrorism defences were breached for the third time in 10 weeks, as police mounted multiple raids and arrested a dozen people following the London Bridge attack.
Police said armed officers shot dead all three attackers within minutes of receiving reports of the terrorist attack unfolding in central London. The three men were wearing suicide bomb vests that were later confirmed to be fakes.
Britain’s top anti-terrorism officer, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, said detectives are urgently investigating if the three men who killed seven people and left 21 in a critical condition on Saturday night by running over pedestrians in a rented van and stabbing revellers in Borough Market were “assisted or supported”. The attack was only stopped when eight armed officers killed them in a hail of about 50 bullets, fearing it was a “life or death situation”.
Eight firearms officers opened fire about 50 times on the three attackers in what the Met police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley described as a “critical” incident that was a matter of life and death, given the terrorists were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts. Rowley confirmed a member of the public was hit by a stray bullet and is among 36 people still in hospital, 21 of whom are in critical condition.
Armed police raided homes in Barking, east London, on Sunday, including the home of one of the suspected attackers whom neighbours described as a married father of two young children who regularly attended two local mosques.
Police believe all the attackers were killed in the confrontation, but Rowley would not comment on whether they were previously known to the police or intelligence services, citing ongoing investigations into their identities.
Five people – four men and a woman – were taken by armed police from the apartment block where he was believed to have lived. One man who tried to resist arrest was shot with a Taser electronic weapon, according to a witness. Three women were later led away from the same flats and police raided a flat above a bookmakers on Barking Road.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, earlier said the police’s priority was to “establish more details about these individuals who carried out the attack and the background to it”. Detectives also wanted to know whether anyone was working with them in what she described as “a fast-moving investigation”.
“Work is ongoing to understand more about [the three attackers], about their connections and about whether they were assisted or supported by anyone else,” said Rowley.
Police raided an apartment block in Barking on Sunday morning and arrested five people – four men and a woman – according to witnesses, as part of a dozen arrests in the east London borough.
Rowley would not comment on whether the attackers were previously known to the police or intelligence services, citing ongoing efforts to confirm their identities. The BBC reported that an unnamed friend of one of the attackers had claimed to have reported the man to the anti-terrorism hotline after he had sought to justify a previous attack.
One neighbour identified the man who lived in the block as one of the dead attackers. She described him as in his mid-20s, of Pakistani heritage and living with a wife and infant. Another neighbour said one of the four detained men was shot with a Taser electronic weapon during the arrests.
Police believe all the attackers were killed in what Rowley described as a “critical” confrontation given that the terrorists were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, but later turned out to be hoaxes.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The investigation into last night’s horrific attack in London is progressing rapidly as the Metropolitan Police Service continue to piece together exactly what occurred. Officers from the Met’s counter-terrorism command have this morning, Sunday 4 June, arrested 12 people in Barking, east London, in connection with last night’s incidents in London Bridge and the Borough Market area. Searches of a number of addresses in Barking are continuing.”
“I am not surprised that faced with what they must have feared were three suicide bombers, the firearms officers fired an unprecedented number of rounds to be completely confident they had neutralised those threats,” he said. “I am humbled by the bravery of an officer who will rush towards a potential suicide bomber thinking only of protecting others.”
There would be increased police patrols in London, including with armed officers, she said. Dick urged people to remain calm but be “very vigilant”.
In other measures, police and MI5 have in recent days being reviewing a large pool of 20,000 former terrorism suspects to see if they needed to be reassessed as more dangerous than previously thought, one official confirmed. Rowley also said additional police, armed and unarmed, will be placed on patrol in the capital, policing plans for forthcoming events will be reviewed, and “increased physical measures” will be used in order to keep the public safe on London’s bridges.
Rowley said additional police, armed and unarmed, will be placed on patrol in the capital, policing plans for forthcoming events will be reviewed, and “increased physical measures” will be used in order to keep the public safe on London’s bridges.
On Sunday night, 36 people remained in hospital after the horrific attack. One of the dead was a Canadian, another was French, while the injured included several other French nationals, two Australians and two New Zealanders. Two police officers were also injured. They were an on-duty member of the British transport police armed only with a baton who was stabbed in the face and head when he confronted the attacker, and an off-duty member of the Metropolitan police. One member of the public was also hit by a stray bullet and was hospitalised but their injuries are not life-threatening.
In a speech outside 10 Downing Street later on Sunday morning, Theresa May said many of the injured were suffering life-threatening conditions.
Witnesses earlier told the BBC the attackers shouted “this is for Allah” before launching their attacks with knives and blades said to be 10 inches long.
The prime minister said the three fatal terror attacks that Britain has seen in the past three months – Westminster Bridge, Manchester and now London Bridge – were “not connected by common networks”.
Elizabeth O’Neill, mother of one of the victims, 23-year-old Daniel O’Neill, who was being treated in King’s College hospital, said: “A man ran up to him and said: ‘This is for my family, this is for Islam,’ and stuck a knife straight in him. He’s got a seven-inch scar going from his belly round to his back.”
But she warned of a new threat of copycat attackers and announced a review of counter-terrorism legislation including possible longer sentences for terror offences and a campaign against the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism”.
Gabrielle Sciotto, a documentary-maker who was on the scene, said the terrorists were fleeing a policeman who was chasing them out of Borough Market when they were shot.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “There is, to be frank, far too much tolerance of extremism in our country,” she said. “So we need to become far more robust at identifying it and stamping it out … That will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations. We need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities but as one truly United Kingdom.”
“They ran towards me because the police officer was trying to chase them,” he said. “Suddenly lots and lots of police came from the other direction. There was a lot of shouting: ‘Stop, stop, get on the floor.’ Then the police shot them.”
People fled as the attack unfolded in one of the capital’s most popular nightspots, and witnesses have given horrific accounts of the terrorists storming into a pub and restaurant to attack people with foot-long knives. They spoke of desperate attempts by customers to fend off the men with bottles and chairs.
Before that, members of the public had fought back. Gerard Vowls, 47, said he saw a woman being stabbed by three men in their 30s and threw chairs, glasses and bottles in an attempt to stop them.
A Canadian national was among those killed, the country’s prime minister Justin Trudeau said. The victim was not named.
“They kept coming to try to stab me,” he said. “They were stabbing everyone. Evil, evil people.”
One of those injured was a British Transport police officer, who was stabbed in the head, face and leg. His injuries are serious but not life-threatening.
Sciotto then took photographs of the dead terrorists, which allowed neighbours of one suspected attacker at a modern apartment complex in Barking to identify him.
Five of the nine injured victims admitted to St Thomas’s hospital have been discharged, as has one of the 14 admitted to King’s College hospital, health officials said.
“He lived here for about three years. I used to see him with his wife in a burka,” said one woman who asked not to be named. “She was pregnant but recently had a baby and they had a small boy of about two. There was a succession of unusual cars coming and going here in the last while. There was a foreign-registered BMW which was just stacking up [parking] tickets. Then in the last week the activity stopped.”
Police said the rampage began at 10.08pm on Saturday and lasted eight minutes, with the three suspects shot dead by officers at 10.16pm.
“He used to play with the children in the park and playground,” added Jamal Bafadhal, 63, a neighbour. “From the outside to look at him you thought he was a good guy. But he was a little bit removed from us.”
It is the third deadly attack in less than three months in Britain, where the general election is due to be held on Thursday.
Salahudee Jayabdeen, 40, said the man had been forcibly removed from a local mosque, Jabir bin Zayd.
Police investigations continued with considerable intensity on Sunday morning in the Borough Market area, where heavily armed officers were deployed.
“He started questioning what the imam was saying,” he said. “He was asked to leave. He didn’t want to and was forcibly taken out.”
The BBC reported that two witnesses had claimed one or more attackers said “this is for Allah” as they rampaged.
A mosque spokesman confirmed the incident had happened, but said the man involved was not a regular and was not known to them.
May was among many political leaders expressing their thanks to emergency services after the attack.
The three attacks in Westminster, Manchester, and now London Bridge have claimed 33 lives in total, and constitute the worst wave of atrocities to hit the UK since the London suicide bombings on 7 July 2005. Five other plots believed to be at an advanced stage have been disrupted since the Westminster Bridge attack on 22 March – four in London and one in Birmingham.
The first ambulance crew arrived six minutes after being called and 80 medics, including an advance trauma team from London’s air ambulance, were dispatched. The prime minister chaired an emergency meeting of the government’s crisis committee, Cobra, on Sunday morning and flags were flown at half-mast over Downing Street. Most of the political parties, apart from Ukip, have suspended national campaigning for the day.
Following a Cobra emergency committee meeting on Sunday, attended by police and security chiefs, the prime minister, Theresa May, said that while terrorists involved in the three attacks were “not connected by common networks”, a new threat was emerging of attackers who “are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training … but by copying one another”.
The Tories said local work, such as leafleting, would continue, and the suspension would be reviewed during the day.
May also announced a review of counter-terrorism legislation including the possibility of longer sentences for terror offences and a campaign against the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism” and said “enough is enough”.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said his party would also be suspending national campaigning until Sunday evening, after consultation with other parties, but he said: “We will not allow terrorists to derail our democratic process.”
She reiterated her call for international agreements to “regulate cyberspace”, accusing internet companies of creating a safe space in which extremist ideology can breed. Facebook, Google and Twitter all defended their record and said they wanted to work with government to prevent terrorists using their platforms.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, also dismissed questions about whether Thursday’s election should go ahead and condemned the terrorists as “barbaric cowards”.
“We want Facebook to be a hostile environment for terrorists,” said Simon Milner, director of policy at Facebook UK, Middle East and Africa.
World leaders voiced solidarity with Britain. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said: “We are united beyond all borders in horror and sorrow, but also in determination.” Donald Trump tweeted: “Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK, we will be there.”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced that a vigil will be held next to City Hall, beside Tower Bridge, on Monday evening from 6pm “to show the world that we stand united in the face of those who seek to harm us and our way of life”.
The latest attacks involved a clear plot among the three attackers, and will trigger fresh questions for police and the domestic security service MI5. The fear will be that the defences against such attacks are being regularly penetrated, after atrocities in Westminster and Manchester.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has left the UK terror threat level at severe, meaning an attack remains “highly likely”. It was raised to critical – the highest level – in the wake of the Manchester arena bombing and was returned to severe last Saturday.
Just before 4am on Sunday, Rowley, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, gave the first official account of the attack.
He said: “Since late yesterday evening the Metropolitan police service has been responding to incidents in the London Bridge and Borough Market areas of south London. We are treating this as a terrorist incident and a full investigation is already under way, led by the Met’s counter-terrorism command.
“At 22:08 yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge. The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market.
“Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes.”
One photograph provided to the Guardian showed a man on the ground after being shot by police, apparently with canisters strapped to his body. Gabrielle Sciotto, a documentary-maker who took the picture, said he saw people running away from Borough Market.
“It was dark, but I could see three men,” he said. “They were about 20 metres away. It was quite confusing – it took me a few seconds to work out what was going on. There was one policeman there, inside Borough Market. He was trying to scare them away. They ran towards me because the police officer was trying to chase them.”
The men ran out of Borough Market and turned left into Stoney Street towards the Wheatsheaf pub. “Suddenly lots and lots of police came from the other direction” and armed officers started yelling at the men, Sciotto said. “There was a lot of shouting. ‘Stop, stop, get on the floor,’ stuff like that. Then the police shot them.”
Gerard Vowls, 47, said he had been watching the Champions League final at the Ship pub in Borough. He was at the start of the south side of London Bridge and said he saw a woman being stabbed by three men in their 30s.
Vowls said he threw chairs, glasses and bottles at the attackers in an attempt to stop them. “They kept coming to try to stab me ... they were stabbing everyone. Evil, evil people.”
Another witness, Ben, told the BBC what he saw outside Borough tube station. “I saw a man in red with quite a large blade,” he said. “I am guessing 10 inches. He was stabbing a man, maybe three times, fairly calmly. It looked like the man maybe had been trying to intervene but there wasn’t much he could do. He was stabbed quite coldly and slumped to the ground.”
Emergency services treated people lying injured at the junction of Thrale and Southwark Streets, near Borough Market. One woman was taken away on a stretcher while others sat injured on the ground, with people crying and shouting around them.
Members of the public were led up Southwark Street away from Southwark Bridge Road, and police officers shouted orders for people to run. Many were in tears, with friends supporting each other and carrying people up the road. Police entered bars and warned those inside to get down.
One witness, named as Eric, was on the south side of London Bridge when he saw a van on the wrong side of the road. He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It veered to the right and people were trying to run away from it.” When it stopped, he said, three people got out and he thought they were going to help the people who had been hit.
“But the three people literally started kicking them, punching them, and took out knives. It was a rampage really,” he said. The three men ran off towards the nearby bars and restaurants.
Lara Al-Ostta said she was with a friend at the Old Thameside Inn underneath London Bridge when people rushed into the pub and told everyone to run away because “people are stabbing each other”.
Thomas Daly, who was also watching the Champions League final in the Wheatsheaf, said: “People were saying there had been a stabbing at Borough Market and they locked us in. We sat down again and some minutes later people started coming into the bar and people were getting hysterical.
“A lot of people were streaming through the rear exit and we went outside and heard gunshots. I heard at least two gunshots, and at that point the people who were trying to get out the back entrance came back inside.”
Fears that a suspect could still be at large led the police to issue crisis instructions to the public, to “run, hide, tell” if caught up in an incident.
The attackers were shot by police from an armed response vehicle. The number of ARVs was increased across Britain after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris but British police remain largely unarmed, unlike most of their counterparts across the world.
This attack represents another change in terrorist tactics.
The Westminster attack on 22 March used a vehicle and a knife as weapons but involved one man who planned the assault on his own. Four people including a police officer died, as well as the attacker.
A suicide bomber struck at the Manchester Arena on 22 May as people left a pop concert where children and young people were among the 22 killed and 116 injured.
In the London Bridge attack a group of men used a vehicle and knives as weapons.
In addition to the three atrocities, police have disrupted five attack plots – four in London and one in Birmingham – which are claimed to have been at an advanced stage.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which sets the terrorism threat level, was assessing the impact of the London Bridge and other incidents on Britain’s state of alert.
