LONDON — A van driving at high speed mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge late Saturday night before the occupants got out and began stabbing patrons at nearby bars and restaurants, witnesses said in an attack that police described as the latest in a string of deadly terrorist strikes to hit Britain this spring.
At a news conference at dawn today, London’s Metropolitan Police said six people had been killed, and that officers had shot dead the three attackers. Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said authorities did not believe anyone else was directly involved in carrying out the carnage.
London Ambulance Service tweeted a statement saying it had taken more than 30 patients to six hospitals across London.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the attacks were being treated as “terrorist incidents.”
Witnesses described a rampage that left a trail of bloodied bodies on the bridge and in the adjacent Borough Market — both of which are London landmarks.
The low-tech but high-profile attack will raise questions about how British security services failed to stop yet another mass-casualty strike after years of thwarting such attempts.
The attacks set off scenes of panic in the heart of London on a cool June evening as the city’s streets were filled with people heading home from dinner or out for a drink.
In packed pubs — normally scenes of Saturday night revelry and merriment — patrons threw chairs, bottles and glasses at the attackers as the assailants used long knives to slash their way through crowds. Tourists gaped at the carnage from the roofs of double-decker buses.
Witnesses reported that a white van was traveling fast — approximately 50 mph — when it mounted the sidewalk and plowed into a group of people crossing the Thames River on foot just after 10 p.m.
The van collided with a guardrail. Bystanders said they thought the crash may have been an accident, until the occupants got out.
The three men who had been in the vehicle immediately began stabbing people on the bridge with knives before making their way to Borough Market, a foodie paradise nestled under the archways of railway viaducts that attracts locals and tourists from around the world.
It was in the market, which is just south of the bridge, where police killed the attackers and ended the rampage.
“I heard many gunshots, and I heard people running away,” said Joe Dillon, 23, who was nearby when the attack occurred. “Police officers were shouting: ‘Get out of here, you need to go!’ I heard at least eight rounds of gunshots, but I’m not sure who was shooting.”
Cellphone video from a restaurant in the market showed people diving under tables amid the sound of breaking glass as officers rushed in and ordered patrons to stay down.
Alex Shellum, an eyewitness, told the BBC he was at the Mudlark pub in the London Bridge area when at around 10 p.m. “a woman probably in her early 20s staggered into the pub and she was bleeding heavily from the neck and from her mouth. It appeared to myself and my friends that her throat had been cut.”
Another witness, identified by the BBC as Gerard, said he saw three men running with knives: “They said, ‘This is for Allah.’ Then they ran up and stabbed this girl, I don’t know how many times, 10 times, maybe 15 times.”
He said he and others threw whatever objects they could find — including bottles, glasses and chairs — at the attackers in a futile attempt to stop the rampage.
Within minutes of the attack, dozens of police cars sped to London Bridge and to Borough Market, with helicopters hovering overhead. Police closed the bridge and urged the public to avoid the area.
The incident caused chaos in the heart of London in an area normally bustling on a Saturday night. Pedestrians near the bridge said they were ordered by police to run, and video footage showed people fleeing in a panic. Other images showed members of the public being escorted away from the bridge by police with hands on their heads.
Two hours after the incidents began, police were still widening cordons and pushing bystanders further back from the scenes, as the sound of explosions — apparently controlled blasts carried out by police — echoed through the night.
Rowley, the assistant police commissioner, said the men had not used explosives, despite a widely distributed photo that appeared to show one of the assailants lying prone with metal canisters strapped to his body. Rowley said the vest was “a hoax.”
British leaders scrambled to respond to the attacks.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who had been out campaigning ahead of an election slated for Thursday, returned to Downing Street and was being briefed by security officials.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said on Twitter: “Brutal and shocking incidents reported in London. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
