Three assailants armed with suicide vests drove a van through a crowd in London Bridge, then proceeded to jump out from the vehicle and stab pedestrians.
Apparently, the suicide vests were fake, and the terrorists wore them to ensure they would get killed after the attack. Police neutralized the attackers by shooting at least 50 bullets.
Two terrorists attacks less than a month apart
The attack occurred in the Borough Market, near London Bridge after 10 p.m. Authorities report that eight police officers fired a total of 50 bullets to take down the three armed men that looked like suicide bombers since they wore what looked like explosive vests. After a closer examination, police found that the vests were dummies.
Witnesses described seeing a white van ramming pedestrians and crashing into the bridge’s sidewalk. After it had stopped, three men got out of the vehicle and ran into a nearby area with bars and restaurants and frantically started stabbing people.
The victims tried to defend themselves, as some of them launched blunt objects at the attackers as a method of defense and others created barricades to deter the attackers. 21 out of the 48 injured were in a critical condition after the attack.
The Islamic State has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack, although the number of terrorist acts has increased in the past few months due to the loss of territorial influence that the Islamic extremist group has suffered. It has been reported that ISIS is encouraging its followers to carry out attacks with knives and vehicles during the month of Ramadan.
The attack occurred just five days before the country holds its parliamentary elections, becoming the third act of its kind to hit the U.K. in less than three months.
Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a response to the attacks, claiming that “enough is enough,” and recognizing that the way Islamic extremism has been handled so far is not the right approach.
Among the victims, there was a Canadian man, as confirmed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. None of the victims were publicly identified, although authorities claim that they include people from France and Australia. So far, a dozen of individuals was arrested in connection to the attacks.
The terrorist act occurred just weeks after a suicide bomber detonated his armament in an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.
Theresa May stated that the two attacks were not connected when it comes to planning and execution, although she did state that they were the result of the same “evil ideology of Islamist extremism,” which she calls a perversion of Islam and the truth. May also referred to what she believes is an excess of tolerance for extremism in the U.K.
The Mayor of London ensured that there would be increased police presence in the city and that the public should not be alarmed, something that Donald Trump critiqued harshly through his Twitter account. He called once more for the travel ban for Muslims, which he believes is an “extra level of safety” and also criticized political correctness, as he claims that the U.S. needs to “get down to the business of security for our people.”
Source: Reuters