Less than two weeks after a suicide bombing in Manchester claimed the lives of 22 young adults and children, central London was paralyzed after a trio of men launched a coordinated terror attack.
Late Saturday night, three men rampaged across London Bridge in a van, mowing down pedestrians and running through a waning evening crowd.
Bystanders saw the vehicle crisscrossing the bridge as its pilots steered it towards panicking tourists. In the ensuing chaos, some people reportedly leaped into the Thames to escape the van.
In nearby Borough Market, calls to emergency services indicated another attack was underway.
Initially suspected to be a separate but coordinated incident, it later became evident that the men who’d driven across the bridge had leapt from the van and made their way to Borough Market.
Armed with knives and outfitted with fake suicide belts, they marauded through restaurants and bars, stabbing patrons and lounging customers. Some tried to fight back, tossing bottles, heaving chairs, and barricading themselves behind locked doors.
Metropolitan Police began responding to the incidents within minutes of the first report.
CNN’s timeline of events shows the van entered London Bridge at 9:58pm on Saturday night, nine minutes before reports of a ‘vehicle plowing into pedestrians’ came in.
Within another eight minutes, law enforcement officers confirmed they’d shot and killed three suspects in Borough Market.
The use of firearms and ammunition by London’s Metropolitan Police garnered some media coverage, as law enforcement in the United Kingdom tend to patrol unarmed. However, special units equipped with firearms are often deployed in crises.
At least 50 rounds were fired at the three attackers, leading to the death of all three; CNN reports one bystander was shot.
Metropolitan Police didn’t try to confront or capture the terrorists, who appeared to be outfitted with ‘suicide belts.’ After their deaths, it was determined the bomb devices worn by the men were fake.
“The situation these officers were confronted with was critical, a matter of life and death. Three armed men, wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, had already attacked and killed members of the public and had to be stopped immediately,” said Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner for specialist operations in the Metropolitan Police Service.
In total, seven people were killed and 48 hospitalized with injuries; some victims of the vehicular rampage and subsequent stabbings are reported to be in critical condition.
British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack, as well as the May bombing in Manchester as being connected by the “single evil ideology of Islamist extremism.” Despite apparent progress in combating the threat, she decried there being “too much tolerance of extremism in our country.”
Her remarks were followed up with a promise to crack down on online terror groups and radicalization networks.
“Enough is enough,” May said.
Sources
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