LONDON, England, June 3, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A van plowed through a crowd of pedestrians on the London Bridge on Saturday, leaving some on the ground being treated by emergency responders as police closed off the bridge and ordered people to clear the area or take cover.
Hours after the incident, which began at 10:15 p.m. in London (3:15 p.m. Mountain Time in the U.S.) and included stabbings in the nearby Borough Market, it was reported that at least six people were killed by the attackers and nearly 50 were wounded.
News sources have reported that police shot and killed three male “militants” who got out of the van and started stabbing people in the Borough Market near the bridge. The attack was carried out at a time when the area would be crowded with people enjoying a night out at the many bars and restaurants there.
BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on the bridge at the time, said she saw a man driving the van “probably traveling about 50 miles an hour.”
“He swerved right ’round me and then hit about five or six people.”
Armed police rushed to the scene on the bridge as well as Borough Market, according to a Twitter post by the Metropolitan Police. Initial reports had come in reporting trouble at a third site, in the Vauxhall area, but police later said it was unrelated to the first two attacks.
At London Bridge, a witness, Mark Roberts, told CNN he saw the van hit multiple people before hitting a bus stop and stopping.
“Within my line of sight, there were five or six people on the ground that were not moving,” he said.
Shortly after the attack, BBC confirmed through police sources that more than one person died on the London Bridge.
Police were asking people to clear the area if possible, or to lock themselves in a room and shelter in place, as it was not immediately known how many attackers were involved or how much destruction might have been planned.
Some witnesses had reported that the attackers were wearing explosive vests. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, who is head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in Britain, later said that what looked like explosive vests turned out to have been hoaxes.
Rowley also investigated the May 22 attack in Manchester when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people.
