On the evening of June 3, a terrorist attack took place in London: a van driving across London Bridge drove onto the sidewalk and began to crush people. Then the car drove on to the Borough market, which is located nearby. And people came out with knives and began to attack people. According to eyewitnesses, they wore a semblance of suicide belts, but as it turned out later, they were dummies. There were three criminals, all of them were killed. According to police reports, the attack killed six people and injured 48 more.
This is the third terrorist attack in the UK in recent months. On March 22, a car ran into passers-by on Westminster Bridge, after which the driver with a knife attacked a policeman outside the parliament building. Five people were killed. On May 22, a terrorist set off an explosion at the Manchester Arena immediately after Ariana Grande's concert. 22 people became victims of the attack.
One of the eyewitnesses, Alex Shellam, was in a pub with his girlfriend and friends during the last attack. Here's what he told the BBC:
“Around 10 pm, an injured woman went to a pub for help. She was bleeding heavily from a wound in the neck - it seemed as if her throat had been cut. People tried to stop the bleeding. Outside, emergency services resuscitated another person. The police told us to take cover in the restaurant kitchen while they check the area. Later we were told that we had to leave, and we were escorted outside the district. "
The police had to open fire in the Borough area. Cumi de Costa found herself in the middle of the gunfight as she rode in a taxi towards the market. “50 policemen were aiming at us. The laser sight was directly on the taxi driver. With our hands up, we tried to get out while the police chased us away. We walked along small side streets - the police directed us to the Blackfriars Bridge. There we saw people peeking behind the parapet. Perhaps someone jumped off the bridge. I saw a man leaving the restaurant. He had a handkerchief around his neck that covered the bleeding wound. Another man was lying on the ground. I don't know if he was alive or has already passed away, ”she told the BBC.
Gabriel Schiotto was one of those who saw the terrorists. “It was dark, but I saw that there were three of them. They were 20 meters away from me. In a few seconds I realized what was happening. There was a policeman in the Borough market trying to scare them away. They ran in my direction because the policeman was following them, ”The Guardian said. Then the attackers left the market and moved towards Stony Street. “All of a sudden, many armed policemen appeared from the other side and they started shouting loudly at them. There were a lot of screams. “Stop, lie on the floor!” - such a plan. Then the police shot them. ”
Ben and his wife Natalya were at the Borough Market at the time of the incident. They told BBC Radio 5 that they saw a black man in red stab a passerby with a knife. “The knife seemed to be 10 inches (25 cm - Esquire). The man in red hit him three times.
Will Orton, 25, told the Daily Mail: “We were at the Sheaf Pub. At some point, people began to arrive, we did not understand what was happening. We thought maybe there was a fight on the street or something like that. But then literally hundreds of people entered the bar. "
According to another witness, he was at Applebee’s restaurant, opposite the Wheatsheaf bar on Borough, when the waiters suddenly pulled down all the shutters. “They went outside and saw that two men were lying on the ground without breathing. One of them was wearing what looked like a suicide vest. The police told everyone in the restaurant to stay inside. In a minute we heard two or three shots. "
Alberto Pezzali / ZUMAPRESS.com / Global Look Press
Yesterday, on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, an unknown person in London crashed into a crowd on Westminster Bridge, and then attacked a policeman with a knife on the territory of the British Parliament. As a result, five people, including the attacker and the policeman, were killed and more than 40 were injured. The identity of the terrorist is being established.
The tragedy occurred at about 14:50 London time (17:50 Moscow time). The car driven by the terrorist first knocked down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, and then crashed into the gate of the Parliament building. A man ran out of the car and attacked a police officer with a knife. The attacker was immediately shot. Later, four of his victims died - a policeman with knife wounds and three people injured in a car collision.
Baylor Cook, a 20-year-old student from Alabama, who was at that moment on the Westminster Bridge, told the BBC about the incident. “I was standing on a safety island in the middle of the road when a car appeared and pulled out onto the sidewalk on the side we were going to,” Cook said. - He must have been moving at a speed of at least 35 miles per hour (about 60 km / h) - went very fast. He climbed onto the sidewalk and knocked over a bunch of people. At first it seemed that the driver simply lost control, but then he accelerated even more and disappeared around the corner. "
Now, according to some information, more than 40 victims have been hospitalized in hospitals, 12 of them are in serious condition. Several French schoolchildren are in critical condition. According to the Federal Tourism Agency, there are no Russians among the victims.
Initially, eyewitnesses told the BBC that there were two men in the car. However, the police later said that the attacker most likely acted alone. His photo appeared on the Internet almost immediately. The Independen even named the alleged terrorist, Abu Izzadin. But then it turned out that this was a mistake - at the moment he is serving a sentence in prison.
British investigators are considering the version that the attacker carried out the attack under the influence of the propaganda of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in the Russian Federation). This was reported by Reuters, citing a European official. According to him, investigators already have assumptions about the identity of the attacker, but they do not disclose details.
After the terrorist attack, the London Eye, located opposite the Parliament building across the Thames, was stopped. Inside the cabins, people were blocked, who had spent several hours in the air.
In a sign of mourning for those killed in the attack, the national flag was lowered on the Scotland Yard building. Paris authorities
London is struggling to recover from a daring terrorist attack on Wednesday in the heart of the British capital. The city still has heightened security measures. Police and intelligence agencies are conducting investigations outside the UK Parliament building. According to the latest data, three people became victims of the terrorist.
The police no longer doubt that it was a terrorist attack. All the evidence that has been collected up to this point indicates that the perpetrator acted on purpose, reports. At 14:40 local time, on the busy Westminster Bridge, which leads to the parliamentary complex on the banks of the Thames, a car driven by an unknown person begins to crush people who did not even immediately understand what was happening.
“We were already on the bridge, and we heard shots, turned around and saw a car that hit a woman. Yes, it was a woman, although I'm not 100 percent sure, she was under the wheels. I heard screams. Then we heard shots again. There were bodies everywhere, "says an eyewitness to the incident.
After the offender has run over about a dozen people on the bridge, he turns the car towards the parliament building. Apparently, pursuing another victim, the driver crashes into the fence.
The terrorist leaves the salon, pulls out a knife, and pounces on the policeman who is nearby. The guardian of the order receives multiple wounds. Other police officers open fire to kill. The perpetrator is killed. The entire Westminster area has been operatively cordoned off by the police. Special forces soldiers appear. People are being led away from a dangerous place. Ambulances and a medical helicopter arrive at the scene.
Security forces are closing down the nearest metro station. The sitting of parliament, which took place during these hours, was interrupted, but deputies and peers are forbidden to leave the building. Soon, the office of Prime Minister Theresa May reported that the Prime Minister was not injured, without specifying where she was at the time of the attack. In the morning, the head of the cabinet spoke in the House of Commons. Information about the victims is constantly changing. A few hours later, the police are still unable to name the exact number of injured.
“We are still considering different versions of the motive for the crime. But the counter-terrorism investigation itself is already underway. And a special anti-terror team is engaged. Now we can confirm that we have received many different messages, including about a man who fell into a river, about a car , which crashed into the fence, and about a man armed with a knife. Reinforced police detachments were sent to the scene of the incident. There is information about the injured, including one police officer, but we cannot yet confirm their total number. Additional law enforcement forces have been introduced to the capital, "he said head of Scotland Yard, Bejay Harrington.
The police are checking if the terrorist had accomplices. According to some reports, there could be a second attacker. Nothing is reported about the identity of the murdered criminal. As well as whether he shouted out any slogans when committing a terrorist attack. There are also no signs that the attack could have been carried out by a supporter of radical Islamist organizations. But observers note that this crime takes place just on the day of commemoration of the terrorist attack in Brussels, where a memorial to the victims of the tragedy of March 22 last year was opened on Wednesday.
Sergey Psurtsev, Artyom Rasskazikhin, TV Center.
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