How the attacks in London unfolded

Attackers targeted the heart of London, killing atleast seven people and injuring 48

Three attackers drove a white van into pedestrians on London Bridge on Saturday night and stabbed people at nearby Borough Market, killing at least seven people and injuring 48, the authorities said.

London Bridge

At least one person was killed when the van careered onto the sidewalk along London Bridge. Holly Jones, a BBC reporter who was on the bridge at the time, said the van was driven by a man and was “probably traveling at about 50 miles an hour.” She said that at least five people were being treated for injuries after the vehicle drove on the sidewalk and hit them.

“He swerved right round me and then hit about five or six people,” Ms. Jones said.

Borough Market

After the van crashed into a railing, the three attackers jumped out and ran toward the bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market, according to witnesses and the authorities.

Jack Applebee, who runs Applebee’s Fish Market, told The Wall Street Journal he saw three attackers run up to the restaurant, but they moved on. At least one attacker began slashing at patrons elsewhere in the market with a large knife, witnesses said. An on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the scene at London Bridge was among the people stabbed. The police said he received serious but not life-threatening injuries.

London terror attack. Photo: Twitter (@airnewsalerts)

Patrons of Katzenjammers, a bar on Southwark Street in Borough Market, said injured people were pulled into the bar. Armed police surrounded the building, according to Harris Ali, a King’s College student, who recorded video of the moment police officers ran into the bar.

Gabriele Sciotto, a photographer returning from a bar, saw police confront what appeared to be the three attackers outside Wheatsheaf, a pub, and ordering them to get down.

“The police didn’t know what was going on honestly,” he said. “They shouted at them to go down, to stop moving. It was very chaotic.”

He took a photograph that appears to show at least two of the men on the ground. One appears to have canisters strapped to his waist.

Authorities said that police officers shot and killed three suspects within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call. They said the men wore devices that “looked like explosive vests, but these were later established to be hoaxes.”
 

Investigation and Arrests

Twelve people were arrested in Barking, in east London, on Sunday in connection with the attack. On Sunday evening, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news service, saying that it was carried out by “a detachment of Islamic State fighters.”

Saturday’s attack follows an attack at Westminster Bridge in March, when Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians, killing four people and injuring 50. He then stabbed a police officer to death before being shot and killed near Parliament.

By Rich Harris, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Megan Specia, Sergio Pecanha, Derek Watkins, Mercy Benzaquen and Sarah Almukhtar

©2017 The New York Times News Service