Three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing revelers nearby on Saturday night, killing seven people in what Britain called the work of Muslim militants engaged in a new trend of terrorism.
London Metropolitan Police yesterday said 12 people had been arrested in the Barking District of east London in connection with the attack, which also injured at least 48 people.
The attack occurred five days ahead of a parliamentary election and was the third to hit Britain in less than three months.
PHOTO: AFP
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the election would go ahead as planned on Thursday.
“It is time to say enough is enough,” she said in a televised statement.
“We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are,” May said, calling for a strengthened counter-terrorism strategy that could include longer jail sentences for some offenses and new cyberspace regulations.
Less than two weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed 22 children and adults at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England. In March, five people died after a man drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in central London and stabbed a policeman.
On Saturday night, police shot dead the three male assailants in the Borough Market area near London Bridge within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call shortly after 10pm.
Eyewitnesses described harrowing scenes as the attackers’ white van veered on and off the bridge sidewalk, hitting people along the way and the three men then ran into an area packed with bars and restaurants, stabbing people indiscriminately.
Accounts emerged of people trying to barricade themselves in a pub while others tried throwing tables and other objects to fend off the attackers.
Sky News reported police raided an address in Barking that was the address of one of the attackers and a witness told the TV channel that residents had heard controlled explosions early in the morning.
“We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism,” May said. “Perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots ... and not even as lone attackers radicalized online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”
“While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is — to be frank — far too much tolerance of extremism in our country,” she said, without elaborating.
The three attackers on Saturday night were wearing what looked like explosive vests that were later found to have been fake.
May said the assailants’ aim had been to sow panic.
The London Ambulance Service said 48 people had been taken to five hospitals across the capital and a number of others had been treated at the scene for minor injuries.
In Taiwan, both the Tourism Bureau and the Travel Agent Association (TAA) said they had not received reports about any deaths or injuries of Taiwanese in the attack.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained its “gray” travel alert for the UK, which means that tourists need to be mindful of their safety.
Taiwanese netizen Ray Lin said he happened to be traveling around the sites where the terror attacks took place and uploaded videos and photographs he took on Facebook.
“I have never seen a terror attack up close. Attackers hit people with the van they drove. They also took a policeman as a hostage and slit throats of passersby,” Lin wrote.
“We quickly turned our car around and left the scene as fast as we could. The place we were staying happened to be very close to where the attack took place. When we looked down to the street, we saw people running frantically. The sirens of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances could be heard throughout the city. It felt like a living hell. Even the military was deployed,” he wrote.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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