Two dead in London Bridge terror attack
British police shot dead a man wearing a fake suicide vest who had stabbed five people – two fatally — near London Bridge on Friday before being tackled by a group of bystanders who displayed “breathtaking heroism” in the terrorism incident, according to officials and reports.
Heavily armed cops responded about 2 p.m. to reports of a “stabbing at premises near to London Bridge,” which links the city’s business district with the south bank of the River Thames.
But before the submachine gun-toting cops arrived, the brave passers-by had already wrestled the fleeing madman to the ground – a scene captured in chilling videos shot from different vantage points at the chaotic scene.
One of the intrepid Londoners was a tour guide named Stevie, who stopped his car and ran to help his fellow citizens disarm the attacker.
“I jumped in and kicked him in the head to make him release his knife. A few others did so. He was shouting, ‘Get off me! Get off me!’” Stevie told the Telegraph.
“I was just trying to do as much as I could to get him to release the knife. We wanted to make sure we got the knife away from him as quickly as possible,” he added.
Footage posted on social media showed two men fighting on the bridge before officers pulled a man in civilian clothes off a black-clad man on the ground. Shots then rang out.
One of the good Samaritans was seen retreating from the deadly scene while gingerly holding a knife.
Other images showed police — guns draw — pointing at a person on the ground in the same area where eight people were killed and 48 others injured in a vehicle-ramming and stabbings by Islamic militants along the famed bridge on June 3, 2017.
Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, would not comment about the attacker’s identity.
“This is a very fast-moving, dynamic investigation. I can’t comment on that at the moment,” she said during a news conference. “Working as fast as possible to understand who this man is, where he comes from and if there if anybody else we need to find.”
She added that “counter-terrorism detectives will be working around the clock to identify those who have lost their lives and to support all the victims and their families.”
The White House condemned the attack and pledged “full support to our ally, the United Kingdom,” spokesman Judd Deere said.
“President Trump has been briefed on this morning’s attack at the London Bridge and is monitoring the situation,” Deere said in a statement. “The United States strongly condemns all horrific acts of violence on innocent people.”
The NYPD said it was closely monitoring the situation, noting that there were no “specific or credible threats” to New York.
The knifeman apparently attacked several people at the Fishmongers’ Hall before he was chased out of the historic site near the bridge, the Times of London reported.
A Twitter user said that a friend in Fishmongers’ Hall – the headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers — had reported that a man had “attacked a few workers with a knife.”
Guy Lawrence, 48, a volunteer with the London air ambulance, told the Times of London that he was driving the charity’s van over the bridge when the incident unfolded.
He said he suddenly saw a man running out of Fishmongers’ Hall armed with two “big kitchen knives” with blades about 8 inch long with a group of men in hot pursuit.
“About three or four guys came out of that building,” Lawrence told the newspaper. “One had a stick. One had a fire extinguisher. He was brandishing it at first, then spraying it [at the suspect]. The guy with the stick was poking him.”
“They approached the knifeman at the north end of the bridge and he stood swiping his knives — one in each hand — around him. The men who gave chase successfully tackled the knifeman to the ground,” he continued.
“Then the police got him. It looked like they tasered him,” he said, adding that police ordered him to run from the bridge as gunshots rang out and several cops aimed their guns at a truck left diagonally across the span.
As three officers circled the suspect in the shadow of the Shard skyscraper, western Europe’s tallest building, one bystander in a suit and tie grabbed the knife and quickly retreated.
George Roberts, a translator who was on the bridge, told Reuters that the unidentified man ran through traffic and jumped on the attacker along with several other people.
“We ran away but looks like he disarmed him,” he said. “Amazing bravery.”
After at least two shots were heard, one bystander was heard yelling: “What the f—-! They’ve killed him!”
A woman named Coralie said she saw a girl running after being stabbed in the arm and that she also saw “two, three people stabbed” at Fishmongers’ Hall.
“One minor and the other two were proper bleeding. One of our colleagues is in the hospital with three stabs,” she told The Sun.
The names and conditions of the injured were not available.
Neil Basu, the UK’s top counter-terrorism officer, told reporters that police retained “an open mind as to any motive” for the attack.
“A number of other people received injuries during this incident. We believe a device that was strapped to the body of the suspect was a hoax explosive device,” he said.
“A number of other people received injuries during the incident. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to those anxiously awaiting news from loved ones,” Basu added.
He said that investigators were keeping an “open mind as to any motive.”
Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the innocent bystanders who tackled and disarmed the attacker during the rampage.
“What’s remarkable about the images we’ve seen is the breath-taking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger not knowing what confronted them,” Khan told reporters.
“Members of the public didn’t realize at the time that was a hoax device, and they really are the best of us,” he said, adding that police were not looking for anyone else in the incident.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the investigation was ongoing.
Speaking in Downing Street, he said that “anybody involved in this crime and these attacks will be hunted down and will be brought to justice,” adding that the UK would “never be cowed or divided or intimidated by this sort of attack and our British values will prevail.”
With Britons due to go to the polls on Dec. 12, Johnson was asked if he would suspend campaigning.
“I’ve obviously stopped my campaigning for this evening, but will be we’ll be reviewing the matter in the course of next few hours,” he said.
Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge said it was concerned for the welfare of some of its staff and students who were reported to have been attending an event close to the attack.
“We are gravely concerned at reports that University of Cambridge staff, students and alumni were caught up in the incident at London Bridge. We are urgently seeking clarification and further details. Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by these terrible events,” a university spokesman said.
Amanda Hunter, who was on a bus on the bridge at the time of the attack, described the deadly incident.
“All of a sudden [it] stopped and there was some commotion and I looked out the window and I just saw these three police officers going over to a man,” she told the BBC.
“It seemed like there was something in his hand, I’m not 100 percent sure. But then one of the police officers shot him,” she added.
Noa Bodner, who was stuck in a restaurant near the scene, told the BBC that “there was a rush of people coming in and everybody basically dived under the tables.
“We were told to keep away from the windows, people that came from the outside were saying that shots were fired,” she said, adding that the manager ran to lock the doors and staff told people to move away from the front of the eatery.
Aditi, 29, a visitor from New York, went into hiding in the attic of a cheese shop, according to The Guardian.
“A policeman came to the crowd near Kappacasein Dairy and asked us to move indoors but at the time we couldn’t process that information or know what to do with it,” said Aditi.
“I then noticed people starting to run very fast away from the entrance of Borough Market, so we ran down a side street and noticed people running into Neal’s Yard Dairy,” Aditi continued.
“We were one of the last to get in before they locked the door. We were taken to the attic and the staff said they had been trained for such an incident. We were there for around 30 minutes before the police gave clearance to exit and move further away from the market. My partner and I are rattled but OK. We’re just glad to be safe.”
Security officials earlier this month downgraded Britain’s terrorism threat level from “severe” to “substantial,” which means an attack is seen as “likely” rather than “highly likely.”
The assessment was made by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, an independent expert body that evaluates intelligence, terrorist capability and intentions.
The terror threat in the UK was last listed as “substantial” in August 2014. Since then, it has held steady at “severe,” briefly rising to “critical” in May and September 2017.
With reporting by Priscilla DeGregory and Post wires