Three people have carried out terror attacks in central London, killing 6 and injuring at least 20.
At 22:08 last night, a white van rammed multiple pedestrians on London Bridge. Three attackers then jumped out of the van and stabbed several people. They then drove to Borough Market where another stabbing attack took place in multiple restaurants.
Witnesses reported that the attackers shouted “This is for Allah” and stabbed bystanders with knives. Between the two attacks there were six fatalities.
The three attackers were shot dead by police.
The BBC have reported that a van was driven by a male driver and was “probably travelling at about 50 miles an hour”.
London Ambulance Service Assistant Director of Operations, Peter Rhodes said:
“Our thoughts are with all of those affected by the incident at London Bridge and their friends and family. We took 48 patients to five hospitals across London and treated a number of others at the scene for minor injuries. Police have confirmed that sadly, six people also died at the scene.
We were called to the incident at 10:07pm (Saturday 3 June), with the first ambulance crew arriving within six minutes. We sent over 80 of our medics to the scene including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, specialist response teams and an advanced trauma team from London’s Air Ambulance.
We declared a major incident and worked closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene. Our priority was to assess patients and ensure that they were treated and taken to hospital as soon as possible. I would like to thank our staff and the other emergency services who responded.
Members of the public who are concerned about friends and relatives should contact the police Casualty Bureau on 0800 096 1233 or 020 7158 0197. As we are still very busy, we would urge the public to only call us in a genuine emergency and to call NHS 111 for urgent healthcare advice.”
British Transport Police have confirmed that an officer has been serious injured:
“We can confirm a British Transport Police officer was injured as he was responding to the terrorist incident at London Bridge last night (Saturday 3 June 2017). The officer was on duty and one of the first on the scene, after he responded to calls for help from the public.
He received injuries to his head, face and leg, which, at this time, are believed to be serious but not life threatening. He is currently being treated in a central London hospital and his family are with him while he receives treatment.”
The Metropolitan Police declared the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks to be “terrorist incidents”. Multiple explosions subsequently heard near Borough Market were confirmed to be controlled explosions.
All police officers should be armed, no ifs no buts. The world has changed so must our police.
The police should be armed relative to the general population. The general population does not have access to firearms, so neither should your average patrol officer.
Most officers don’t want to be armed.
Public safety is the priority not what most officers want.
Hi Mike I have several police friends who are serving and ex officers and the majority do not want to be armed with firearms. We need to respect their wishes as the police in this country are the best trained in the world in de-escalation. I do feel that more armed officers are required, but actually we need a more fundamental change, not only because of terrorism but also due to the nature of modern crime. The UK should have a single force (FBI style) for undercover and detective work (Murders in Soham and Cumbria were not managed well by… Read more »
Get another job then ,your job has moved on….
It’s worth considering, but according to reports this morning all 3 suspects were shot dead by armed police within 8 minutes of them receiving the first call. Would having an all-armed force have been faster to react, and save more lives?
There are plenty of ifs and buts. What if that means that the extra overheads of training and regular re-certification of all officers means fewer officers available to deploy? What if lone officers become a target for criminals and terrorists just because of their guns (that is a reality today in some countries) which would probably make things worse? We already saw that episode a few years ago when a guy ambushed that woman police officer and killed her (in the Manchester area?) . That guy was disturbed but if he could do it then how easy would it be… Read more »
I disagree with you, as I said the world has changed. The police need to change to meet the threat.
What if the BTP officer who was wounded last night? He would have been able to intervene and save lives.
Lee Rigby murder, police officers were on the scene quickly but we’re unable to intervene until armed officers arrived.
The attack on palace of Westminster, if the police officer had been armed he may have been alive to today.
Arm the police, no ifs or buts.
That should be, if the BTP was armed
I feel your pain Mike but I have to agree with others. we should not be changing anything as thats what these ass clowns want. We should however have more armed plain clothes officers on patrol if possible. The world has indeed changed but we can fix it without destroying our own way of life. As a start I would make it illegal to download or view ISIS jihadi crap online. 50000 uk citizens downloaded that death cult crap last year. Jail them all. All else failing I am not opposed to making somewhere in the middle east glow in… Read more »
This kind of low-tech attack could happen anywhere in the country. At the very least I think many more armed response teams are needed. Are there any figures on proportion of police who would be willing to routinely carry weapons?
I live in N.Ireland where police are armed and it does not make a difference Mike.
I carried out three tours in NI, the RUC as it was then was named was armed. It made a difference when confronted by PIRA and loyalist terrorists.
When will people wake up that PC fuelled mass immigration is contributing to this? We have allowed people who hate us, our values, culture and way of life to openly come and live here! Probably on benefits of course. Any peep of protest is “racist” according to the liberal left which pervades every part of the establishment, police, universities, and the young, who are too ignorant of life and the world to know different. I laughed at the irony this morning of May standing outside No 10 saying “enough is enough.” Who was Home Secretary and did nothing to stop… Read more »
I actually agree with an awful lot of that. Not all of it, but a lot of it. I’m coming to realise more and more that (6) is probably the biggest issue. Yes, because of its lax gun laws and general gun culture the USA has many more mass shootings than us but when you look at terrorism attacks, and remembering that the USA has waged over 90% of the recent wars against Middle Eastern countries and so should, according to Corbyn’s “we bought this on ourselves with our military interventions in the Middle East” attitude, be subject to a… Read more »
Maybe it is telling that in the USA there seem to be US flags flying everywhere, especially from private homes, they are seriously proud of their identity.
Here its seen as racist. Look at Thornbury a few years back sneering at a Red Cross of St George, it has poisoned so many attitudes.
As for your question how, I don’t know, the UK is not the SS and we do not want to give the excuse to the loony left to say that we are.
To me, PC has totally over run common sense and national identity.
Its fairly easy I think. Lets be honest and grown up and not fall in to the “your racist” trap. Fact – the terrorists are muslim extremists. I keep hearing that “all muslims are not terrorists”, fair enough but pretty much all terrorists (causing the current problems) are muslim extremists. We should stop any more arriving and clamp down on radical clerics and mosques. When they go to jail make it solitary confinment so they cant corrupt anyone else. Isolate them from all contact like a bloody lepar. If they do not hold a valid UK passport then they get… Read more »
Agreed. Most of your suggestions are aimed at the roots of the problem, stopping attacks before they happen rather than trying to reduce the response time to an attack down from all terrorists dead in 8 minutes to 3 or 4 minutes. That seems to me to be the most effective use of resources and the best way to reduce casualties to zero by stopping attacks completely (as far as that is possible). As well as your ideas we also need to help GCHQ and other surveillance operations do their jobs. Should they have controlled access to metadata for all… Read more »
Bang on Julian. If these people are “British Citizens” does that not make them traitors?
Treason.
Revoke passport and deport, or do not allow back.
Which brings me back to a point made in my long rant above, far too much talk from the likes of May and no REAL ACTION. Because anything proposed is watered down due to PC issues and rendered ineffective.
Agree.
I think we need to revisit what being or becoming a citizen means. For me Citizenship should be earned by all members of the UK and part of that should involve creating and embedding a common set of values across our country irrespective of faith. Too many people seem to operate outside of what are normally accepted behaviours and we need to find a way to bring society together. Let’s be honest about this, this is not just an issue for one community or faith, but for the country. We all have a responsibility to our neighbours, family, friends, community… Read more »
Agree. And what do we see? British passports being handed out like confetti.
Security and defence issues addressed: 1) we need huge ramping up in intelligence and security forces operations 2) prevent strategy has failed, the muslim community obviously do not feel part of the wider uk community and citizens of the UK. 3) all individuals returning or known to have gone to Islamic state, Taliban or other radical Islam terrorist groups should have their passports revoked, arrested on arrival back to uk and charged with terrorism 4) segregation in prison for all terrorists so they cannot share or spread their evil ideologies. 5) we know who a large number of these individuals… Read more »