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London Bridge attack: Theresa May warns terror breeds terror after seven killed - live updates London Bridge attack: Theresa May warns terror breeds terror after seven killed - live updates
(35 minutes later)
11.30am BST
11:30
Jamie Grierson
London’s fire chief said firefighters rushed to shut down gas supplies at premises near the attacks.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton, who was at London Fire Brigade headquarters shortly after the incident, said:
Our thoughts today are with all of those affected by this horrific terrorist attack in Southwark. Once again I am proud of all of the London Fire Brigade staff involved in the emergency service response.
London Fire Brigade officers were deployed to assist police and other emergency service colleagues at London Bridge and Borough Market. Specially trained officers were on site to treat casualties and carried out specific tasks, including shutting down the gas supply in a number of premises to ensure the area was safe.
We train alongside our emergency service partners to be ready for this kind of emergency and will continue to remain alert and prepared to respond.
At the height of the incident, and in addition to the specially trained officers attending, six fire engines, a command unit and 30 firefighters were positioned at the scene to assist.
11.26am BST
11:26
My colleague Haroon Siddique reports that police officers have stationed themselves outside St Thomas’ hospital.
Two police officers have just taken up positions outside the main entrance of St Thomas' hospital pic.twitter.com/dsabP1JE4M
11.23am BST
11:23
Nadia Khomami
Eyewitness reports of the bravery of Londoners continue to be shared across media.
As the attacks unfolded, ordinary people out to enjoy Saturday night or those who were working in the area tried to help victims and fend off the perpetrators. One of them was a taxi driver, who told LBC:
I saw the people running away, saw the van went through one of the traffic lights system. If you know London Bridge itself there’s an area called Nancy steps, famous for Oliver, he’d knocked over loads of people down there. Three guys jumped out, of the same description as the guy that took out the Manchester people, similar in looks to him, and they took out these long blades, I’d say about 12 inches+ long, and just went randomly running along Borough high street stabbing people. A young girl got stabbed in the chest, laying there, it’s so sad.
As soon as I saw this, I thought, ‘I’m gonna try and hit him, I’m gonna try and knock him down’. I spun the cab round, I was about to ram one of them, but he sidestepped me.
These three police officers came running towards him with their batons drawn, they didn’t know what was happening, they just came running towards the incident. Bravery, I wish them all the best, all they had was a baton.
The black cab driver, who identified himself only as Chris, described the scene in further detail.
It was sickening. I didn’t know what to do. There was two young girls, I picked them up, and just took them away from there, dropped them off as far away as possible.
Updated
at 11.24am BST
11.22am BST
11:22
The Home Office has set up a webpage here with information about the support available for people affected by the attacks.
The page contains advice on where to seek urgent assistance and information, including the official helplines for the incident. It also provides guidance on support services available for victims, witnesses, family members and all those affected by the attacks.
Updated
at 11.24am BST
11.19am BST
11:19
Caroline Bannock
Jo Wace, 64, a teacher from Dartford, and her friend were walking towards London Bridge station as the attack happened.
We’d been at the Globe theatre watching a performance of Romeo and Juliet and had been chatting about it afterwards so we were late to leave the theatre. At about 10.20pm, we were walking along the pedestrianised part of the South Bank, we’d just passed the Anchor Bankside pub when we saw a large group of people rushing towards us. We assumed that they had to be running towards something not away from it but then one person told us they thought there had been an incident and then we heard the sirens.
The crowd were very calm, very orderly, but then we came across two young French men in their 20s. One of them was very upset and though his friend was trying to calm him down, he couldn’t. I have dual French citizenship and can speak French so I approached him. He was saying: “Look at my hands, I can’t stop them shaking.” He told us he was right there when the van ploughed into people right in front of him. He and his friend turned and ran but they lost another French friend, who was with them, in the confusion. As I was talking to him, we heard a big bang and we realised we should move away.
We tried to leave the area together but there were so many people milling around that we lost them. My friend and I spent a long time trying to find an open station; eventually we crossed the Millennium Bridge. There were people taking selfies on the bridge who hadn’t realised what had happened. Just after midnight we caught a train from Liverpool Street to Romford where a friend picked us up and took us back to Dartford. We felt very calm at the time.It doesn’t hit you till afterwards.
Updated
at 11.23am BST
11.15am BST
11:15
Reports suggest Southwark Bridge is reopening.
Police cordon getting wound back up Southwark bridge road. I'm told the bridge is now open @BBCRadioLondon #Londonattack pic.twitter.com/X8wpJyNo8A
Updated
at 11.24am BST
11.10am BST
11:10
Alice Ross
Irene Smith, who lives near London Bridge, said she heard gunshots several hours after the area had been cleared.
“At about 1.15am I could hear two gunshots in the distance,” she said. About 45 minutes later she heard “another pop – it felt like gunshots”, she said.
Smith had found her way home after fleeing the area earlier in the evening. She had been on a date in the Slug and Lettuce on Borough High Street when it became clear something was going on outside. “We were just talking and then suddenly I heard people gather around the window facing Borough High Street,” she said.
“People were like, ‘What’s going on?’ Somebody said, ‘Run! Run!’ We thought there was a fight outside so we didn’t bother, but then the staff were shouting, ‘Leave, run now.’” Police were standing in the middle of the street, she said.
“I’m really surprised how quickly police managed to get here – there was car after car,” she said.
Smith remembers a policewoman shouting, “Run as fast as you can. Run for your life.”
“So we didn’t know what we were running from. It was quite unsettling. You half expected gunshots from the back.”
She continued: “The most shocking moment was a woman aged 40-45 in a pink top crying. I hugged her and said are you all right. She said, ‘I’ve seen someone being stabbed.’”
As Smith and her date headed south towards Borough station, police along the way urged the crowd to hurry. “The police kept saying all the way down ... ‘Run, keep running, keep moving. Get somewhere safe. Clear the area.’
“People were crying, people had lost their friends and couldn’t get in touch with them.”
They were told to get on to the tube as soon as possible if they needed to travel. “We still didn’t know what was happening. We went straight to the tube – staff were really good, very protective.”
A train approached but didn’t stop, and staff said the station would probably close soon. Buses had also stopped, she said. “So we were kind of stuck in the area ... we wanted to hide somewhere in a small corner or a pub but we thought anyone could storm in and start shooting.”
Despite the chaos, Smith remembers feeling oddly calm. “I was laughing – that was my defensive reaction,” she said. It was only later that the situation sank in. Smith lives in Guinness Court, near Borough Market, and although police told her she wouldn’t be able to get home, she made her way home through the backstreets at about 1am.
“It was pretty empty – a post-apocalypse feeling,” she said. “It’s very unusual to see London Bridge so empty on a Saturday night.”
Updated
at 11.26am BST
11.00am BST
11:00
Reports suggest a number of people have been taken away by police from the block of flats in Barking.
Aerial footage shows an ambulance parked outside the high-rise building, a number of police officers and a tape cordon.
10.57am BST
10:57
Rudd says the government wants to do more to stop the way young men are being “groomed” into radicalisation. She says the messages of hate have changed. The terrorists are no longer encouraging Britons to join the Caliphate. Instead they are trying to “weaponise” people in this country.
Q: We cannot tackle this on our own?
Rudd says we can do so much more. The PM has announced an international forum to get internet companies to address radicalisation online. We want them to focus on two things, she says: taking down material that radicalises people online; and stopping people exploiting end-to-end encryption.
Q: Is it right to politicise this?
Rudd says there will be no politicisation of the effort to keep people safe.
Updated
at 10.59am BST
10.53am BST10.53am BST
10:5310:53
Rudd says threat level is not being raised from severe to criticalRudd says threat level is not being raised from severe to critical
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is on ITV’s Peston on Sunday now. Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is on ITV’s Peston on Sunday now. She says the joint terrorism analysis centre (JTAC) has not recommended raising the threat level.
She says the joint terrorism analysis centre (JTAC) has not recommended raising the threat level. It was raised after the Manchester Arena attack because there was a fear that the bomber could have been working with others who might be planning further attacks. But JTAC does not see the need to raise it now. The threat level is still at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. After Manchester it briefly went up to critical, meaning an attack was seen as imminent.
It was raised after the Manchester Arena attack because there was a fear that the bomber could have been working with others who might be planning further attacks. But JTAC does not see the need to raise is not. It is still at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. After Manchester it briefly went up to critical, meaning an attack was seen as imminent.
Rudd says threat level is not being raised from severe to critical.Rudd says threat level is not being raised from severe to critical.
Updated
at 11.00am BST
10.46am BST10.46am BST
10:4610:46
Police operation under way in Barking - reportsPolice operation under way in Barking - reports
Sky News are showing live footage of a police operation underway at a block of flats in Barking. The Guardian is yet to verify whether it is connected to the attacks in London Bridge and Borough market but the Sky News correspondent says it is. Sky News is showing live footage of a police operation under way at a block of flats in Barking. The Guardian is yet to verify whether it is connected to the attacks in London Bridge and Borough Market but the Sky News correspondent says it is.
UpdatedUpdated
at 10.50am BST at 11.00am BST
10.42am BST10.42am BST
10:4210:42
May says national campaigning will resume in full on Monday. The election will go ahead as planned on Thursday. May says national campaigning would resume in full on Monday. The election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.
We will come together and, united, we will take on our enemies, she says. And that’s it. We’ll post a full summary shortly.We will come together and, united, we will take on our enemies, she says. And that’s it. We’ll post a full summary shortly.
UpdatedUpdated
at 10.48am BST at 11.01am BST
10.41am BST
10:41
May proposes to review counter-terrorism laws, and suggests longer sentences for some offences
May says this is the third terror attack Britain has experienced in three months, after the Westminster and the Manchester Arena attacks.
The police have disrupted five credible attacks since the Westminster attack, May says.
The prime minister says we are seeing a new style of attack. People are copying each other.
Things need to change in four important ways, she says:
First, the attackers are bound together by Islamist extremism. It is an ideology that claims our values are incompatible with Islam. Defeating this is one of the great challenges of our time.
It will not be defeated by the maintenance of a counter-terrorism operation. It will only be turned around by persuading people are values are better.
Second, we cannot give the terrorists safe space. But that is what the internet provides.
May proposes to redouble international efforts to control extremism on the internet.
Third, there must be action at home.
May says there is “far too much tolerance of extremism in our country”.
This will require some embarrassing and difficult conversations, she says.
Fourth, we need to review the counter-terrorism strategy, to ensure the police have the powers they need.
May proposes to review counter-terrorism laws, and suggests longer sentences for some offences.
Updated
at 10.45am BST
10.36am BST
10:36
May says the UK fell victim again to a brutal terrorist attack.
Just before 10.10pm last night the police received reports a van had hit pedestrians on London Bridge. It then went to Borough Market, where three men got out and attacked people with knives. They all appeared to be wearing explosive vests.
Police arrived within moments and shot and killed the terrorists. The police shot them within eight minutes of the first call being received. Seven people were killed and 48 people are in hospital, many with serious injuries.
Updated
at 10.38am BST
10.34am BST
10:34
Theresa May's statement
Theresa May is making her statement outside Number 10 now.
Earlier, she chaired a meeting of Cobra, the government’s emergency committee.
Updated
at 10.36am BST
10.33am BST
10:33
Caroline Bannock
Arvin Vaziri, 27, a student from Sweden was in A&E at University College Hospital on Saturday night when he heard about the terrorist attack.
A few minutes later the first victims began to arrive.
We were in one of the cubicles in A&E being seen by a nurse as my wife, Maria Sand had severe stomach pains. At about 1045pm we heard an intercom message on all the speakers saying that there had been a major incident and all available staff had to come and have a meeting. We heard that all the patients who weren’t critical had to be sent home. A nurse came into our cubicle and assured us we weren’t taking up anyone’s space as we needed to be there and could stay. He [the nurse] said that there had been a possible incident and people with gun wounds and stab wounds were on their way to the hospital.
We began to hear the ambulance sirens and then people came in on trolleys - there were a few of them, we were told one was a gunshot victim and the others were stabbings. Doctors and nurses continued to check up on my wife and then we were moved from our cubicle as they needed all of them - I think there are about 16 cubicles. It was very professional but very hectic.
We talked to one nurse who had finished her shift at 10pm and had arrived home as she lived close-by, however she heard the news and decided to come back in to help her colleagues. Another doctor was off-shift but had biked six miles to get back to the hospital. The staff have been amazing, managing to juggle care of the victims and the patients that already had been admitted.
10.29am BST
10:29
Thornberry says election should go ahead on Thursday and people should 'come out defiantly and vote'
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, told ITV’s Peston that the election must go ahead on Thursday.
We need to be out there and we need to have the election and it needs to be on Thursday and we need to make sure that people come out defiantly and vote. Because in doing so they are underlining our fundamental values and showing how different we are [to the terrorists].
And earlier she told the BBC.
What they are trying to do is separate the very essence of London. We are an example to the world of a multi-racial, multi-national city. We can show the world how it can be. And they just want to undermine it. And we will not let them. We have to make sure that we continue to stick together defiantly and make sure that we work together, again as a community.
10.28am BST
10:28
Haroon Siddique
Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust dealt with nine patients, five of whom have since been discharged.
A spokeswoman for the trust said:
Following the terror incidents in London Bridge and Borough Market last night, we have treated nine patients at St Thomas’s - six men and three women. Five of the patients have since been discharged and four patients – two men and two women – have been admitted.
Updated
at 10.33am BST
10.26am BST
10:26
This police officer has posted a poignant message on Twitter:
Stared shift taking photos with children playing on the Southbank. Ended it giving CPR to innocent victims attacked at London Bridge. 💔
10.24am BST
10:24
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has said that the general election must go ahead and that Lib Dem national campaigning will only be suspended for a short time. In a statement, he said:
The terrorists kill us because they hate us and what we stand for. They hate our democracy and our freedom. We refuse to let them win. We must respond with a vigorous commitment to our democracy.
The election must go ahead as planned. It is right that we suspend our national campaigning for a short while out of respect for those affected by these tragic events, but local campaigning can and must continue.
The remainder of this campaign must be a collective showing of defiance and pride in our democratic values.
Updated
at 10.26am BST
10.17am BST
10:17
Henry McDonald
The Ulster Unionist party has announced it is suspending campaigning in Northern Ireland in the general election campaign on Sunday as a mark of respect for the dead and injured of the London Bridge/Borough Market attack.
The Democratic Unionist leader and former first minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, tweeted this morning:
Thinking of all affected by these horrific incidents in London. Thoughts & prayers also with emergency services at the scene #LondonBridge https://t.co/fJzYnjTQxr
Meanwhile, Ireland’s foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, said the UK had been “subjected to cowardly and barbaric attacks”. Flanagan said the people of Ireland stand with the UK in this time.
Updated
at 10.22am BST
10.15am BST
10:15
Here is some more international reaction to the London Bridge attack.
From the Russian president Vladimir Putin
Putin: cruelty and cynicism of London attack are appalling. Condemns terrorism, expresses condolences to British people. pic.twitter.com/dPBsa9cmgD
From the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi
Attacks in London are shocking & anguishing. We condemn them. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.
From the Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Appalled by events in #London. My thoughts are with the victims and the British people, who will persevere
From Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister
Solidarité totale avec Londres et les britanniques. Les agents de l'ambassade et à Paris sont mobilisés pour nos compatriotes sur place 🇫🇷🇬🇧
French Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian expresses "full solidarity with our British ally" after terrorist attack in London #LondonBridge
From Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs
With #London, the open lively bright city we all love https://t.co/Qcq2z4UqHH
From Antonio Tajini, the European parliament president
We mourn in solidarity with the victims and the families of heinous #LondonBridge attack.These acts must be stopped! #UnitedAgainstTerrorism
From Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator
All my thoughts are with victims and their families after #LondonAttacks. We all stand together with the U.K. in solidarity.