A series of co-ordinated terror attacks have hit London in three different areas, with reports of dozens of casualties from stabbings and pedestrians mown down by a vehicle.
The London Bridge area was in lockdown after witnesses said 20 people were run down by a van and pedestrians were attacked with knives at 10.08pm.
There were also multiple reports of rapid gunfire in what one witness described as “Westminster all over again”.
Within minutes there were reports of a second incident at Borough Market on the south bank of the Thames. One cab driver said three men ran towards the market stabbing people – including a young girl – as they ran.
Then, shortly before midnight police said they were attending a third incident in the Vauxhall area.
Police entered bars and restaurants in the Southwark area around 11pm and told customers to get down on the floor amid reports that the incident was still ongoing. People outdoors were told by yelling police officers to run from the area as the atmosphere turned to one of “hysteria”.
British Transport Police said they were aware of reports of “multiple” casualties.
The Prime Minister was being kept informed of developments and Whitehall sources told The Sunday Telegraph last night that the incident “appeared to be” terror-related.
It came less than a fortnight after the Manchester suicide bombing and just three months after a terrorist ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a policeman to death at Parliament.
Holly Jones, a BBC reporter at London Bridge when the first incident happened, said a van had swerved off the road into a crowd of pedestrians.
“A white van driver came speeding – probably about 50mph – veered of the road into the crowds of people who were walking along the pavement,” she told BBC News.
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