Six people were killed and at least 30 others were injured in a “terrorist incident” at the London Bridge and nearby Borough Market on Saturday night.
A white van crashed into several pedestrians on the bridge while traveling at a high speed around 10 p.m. Saturday night before it continued on to the market, police said.
Three men jumped out of the van and began stabbing people in the Borough Market area. One of the victims was an British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident. The officer was left with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
The police shot and killed all three men shortly thereafter.
“At this stage, we believe that six people have died in addition to the three attackers shot dead by police. And at least 20 casualties have been taken to six hospitals across London,” Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Assistant Commissioner, said in a statement.
Rowley said police killed the three attackers within eight minutes of the first call over the attack.
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Police believe there were no other attackers in the incident.
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No motive is known at this time.
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The London Ambulance Service said there were at least 30 people injured in the attacks on Saturday night.
“We can confirm we have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London following the incident at London Bridge,” the London Ambulance Service’s assistant director of operations, Peter Rhodes, said in a statement. “We have also treated a number of people at the scene for less serious injuries.”
Gabriele Sciotto took the following photo of a man on the ground with a police officer over him. Police have not confirmed the man in the photo is one of the suspects. They did confirm the attackers had canisters strapped to their bodies like the men in the picture. Police said the canisters were “hoaxes.”
About two hours after the incidents were initially reported, television images showed people walking away from the London Bridge area with their hands on their heads.
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Police advised people in the area to “run” to a safe place.
A BBC reporter was on the London Bridge at the time of the incident.
“He swerved right round me and then hit about five or six people. He hit about two people in front of me and then three behind,” Holly Jones told the British TV network.
WATCH: British authorities respond to incident on London Bridge
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Line of ambulances drive toward London Bridge -
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Armed London police officers enter bar, tell patrons to ‘get down’ -
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Emergency responders rush to incident on London Bridge -
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Huge police presence after reports of van plowing into crowd -
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London Bridge subway station evacuated amidst security incident -
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British authorities respond to incident on London Bridge
Another witness, Will Heaven, said he saw people who appeared to have been hit, and one being put into an ambulance.
“We saw injured people on the road, injured people on the pavement,” Heaven told Sky News.
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London’s river Thames police said it was working with the lifeboat rescue service to help evacuate people caught up in the attack.
British Transport Police said the bridge will remain closed throughout the night.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said an attack in central London late Saturday was a “deliberate and cowardly attack,” and that he would take part in a security meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May later on Sunday.
“We don’t yet know the full details, but this was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors,” Khan said.
“I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts,” he added.
May said an incident involving a vehicle and reported stabbings in London “is being treated as a potential act of terrorism.”
May said it is a “fast-moving investigation” and her thoughts are with those caught up in the “dreadful events.”
The incident comes days ahead of a June 8 election, with polls suggesting the lead May’s Conservative Party has dropped sharply.
It also comes less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.
The Manchester bombing May 22 was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in co-ordinated attacks on London’s transport network.
Saturday night’s attacks also come less than three months after an attacker ran down people with a vehicle on Westminster Bridge, killing four, then stabbed a policeman to death outside Parliament.
— With files from Reuters and Associated Press
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