What happened in the London Bridge terror attack, who were the Borough Market attackers and how many victims were there?
LONDON Bridge was the scene of a brutal and shocking terrorist attack on June 3, 2017 and its second anniversary is today. The attack left eight people dead and 48 injured, here’s how the attack unfolded and how the UK reacted to the horrifying event. Who were the attackers? Three terrorists wearing stab-proof vests drove a van […]
LONDON Bridge was the scene of a brutal and shocking terrorist attack on June 3, 2017 and its second anniversary is today.
The attack left eight people dead and 48 injured, here’s how the attack unfolded and how the UK reacted to the horrifying event.
Who were the attackers?
Three terrorists wearing stab-proof vests drove a van into pedestrians at 50mph on London Bridge before attacking revellers around Borough Market with hunting knives.
Police identified two of the attackers as Pakistani-born Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, and Morrocan Rachid Redoune, 30.
The third attacker, also Morrocan-born, was Youssef Zaghba.
The 22-year-old had been arrested at Bologna Airport in March 2016 when he tried to travel to Syria via Turkey.
What happened in the London Bridge attack?
In a rampage lasting little over eight minutes, the terrorist gang stabbed and slashed at innocent victims with 12-inch blades.
After ploughing a white van into several pedestrians on London Bridge, the killers ran down a flight of stairs at the side of London Bridge towards Cafe Brood near Borough Market.
The terrorists then ran down the road and began to attack drinkers in the nearby Mudlark pub before entering Borough Market itself.
An eyewitness said it was not long before they had completed a loop of the market and came back to Cafe Brood before continuing onto the Black and Blue restaurant where they were finally gunned down by police.
After the attack police evacuated many of the survivors from Borough Market to Liverpool Street where they took witness statements and kept them inside until Sunday morning.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the depraved attack as a chilling video emerged showing three jihadis calmly strolling past a pub during their van and knife rampage.
One officer was seriously wounded before heroic cops gunned down extremists minutes after the first emergency call at 10.08pm.
A minute’s silence was observed in the UK on June 6 at 11am to remember the victims while events of remembrance will take place on the one-year anniversary of the attack on Sunday, June 3, 2018.
How many people died?
Eight people died and 48 others were injured.
The victims were taken to six hospitals around the capital.
The first victim was named as Canadian national Christine Archibald, a charity worker from British Columbia.
Her family revealed she used to work in a shelter for the homeless before deciding to move to Europe to be with her fiancé.
At an inquest into the victim’s deaths her partner revealed how she’d kissed and said she loved him before dying in his arms minutes later.
James McMullan, from Hackney, East London, was named as the second victim by his grieving sister Melissa, who said: “Words will never be able to match his essence.”
Xavier Thomas, 45, Ignacio Echeverria, 39, Alexandre Pigeard, 27, Kirsty Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, and Sara Zelenak, 21, were also killed.
Kirsty was stabbed to death as she ran towards the terrorists as she tried to help other victims.
The nurse, who was working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, was dubbed “the Angel of London” for her bravery.
Mr Thomas, 45, and his girlfriend, Christine Delcros, who were struck by the van as they walked across the River Thames.
The Frenchman was flung into the water while Christine was left seriously injured on the bridge – the dad-of-two’s body was found by police three days after the attack.
The Old Bailey heard how Mr Belanger moved to London from his native France in 2009 and worked as head chef at Coq D’Agent.
Chief Coroner Mark Lucraft QC told the court that despite being confronted by three knife-wielding attackers, he had “bravely fought back” before he was killed by “quite horrific injuries”.
And Australian au pair Sara Zelenak was on the “trip of a lifetime” when she was stabbed to death while on a night out with a friend, her family said.
Witnesses reported seeing victims flipped into the air and leaping into the River Thames as the attackers sped into them.
The jihadis stabbed and slashed at their victims while heroic passers-by tried to fight them off.
Bloodied victims staggered into nearby pubs and restaurants and were treated by onlookers as the police got the situation under control.
At least four of the injured were police officers.
The three attackers were shot dead by police less than 10 minutes after the rampage began.
What has the inquest revealed?
An eight-week inquiry into the deaths of the victims began on May 7 at the Old Bailey, due to be followed by a separate hearing for the inquests of their killers in front of a jury.
The terrorists used 12-inch pink knives bought from a Lidl supermarket.
It has also been claimed they might have originally planned to target Oxford Street as the Old Bailey heard a mobile was found later in their van with directions to London’s famous shopping street on it.
Rachid Redouane was caught on CCTV on May 15, 2017 buying the knives at a self-service checkout.
He then returned two weeks later and bought several wine bottles which he and his accomplices turned into viable makeshift petrol bombs.
They were found in the van the group used to drive at pedestrians in the attack.
Could the attackers have been stopped?
Suspicions had been raised about Khuram Butt, including a call made to the anti-terrorism hotline by Butt’s brother-in-law to report his increasing radicalisation.
However, that information did not reach a police team nor MI5, the BBC reported.
Investigators suspected that Butt supported the Islamic State group and his phone was full of extremist material.
Gareth Patterson QC, representing six of the victims’ families, said they believed it had been an “inadequate investigation” and MI5 should have made him more of a priority.
Patterson added that the planning may have been going on for months and could have been detected.
However, Sir James Eadie QC representing MI5, argued that even if more resources were used to investigate Butt, there was no evidence to prove it would have led investigators to uncovering the terrorist plan.
Eadie argued that the attackers planned and conspired in secret and Butt wasn’t doing anything specific to convert his aspirations into actions.
M15 made the conclusion in 2016 that Butt may have fled to Syria to fight and instead geared their resources towards people who appeared to be planning attacks.
Killings unlawful, coroner rules
The inquest into the eight victims ended with the coroner concluding they were unlawfully killed.
Over weeks, detailed evidence about whether the attack could have been stopped – either by the security services or through better protection on the bridge – was examined.
The coroner criticised the “particularly vulnerable” location of London Bridge and the lack of barriers, but said he was “not convinced” MI5 and the police missed any opportunities to stop the attack.
What did Theresa May say about the attack?
The Prime Minister gave a statement outside 10 Downing Street following the attack.
She called on Britain’s allies to help “regulate cyberspace”.
Mrs May said terrorism “cannot be defeated through military intervention alone” as she condemned the “evil” ideology behind the recent atrocities.
The Tory leader said a “new trend in the threat we face” has emerged and called for four “important” changes.
She continued: “We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are. Things need to change.”
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What is the current UK terror threat level?
The current threat level for international terrorism in the UK is severe, which means an attack is “highly likely”.
Britain also faces a substantial threat from Northern Ireland-related terrorism – meaning an attack is “a strong possibility” – while the level in Northern Ireland itself is severe.
There are five threat levels, decided by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of an attack.
The UK’s threat level was upgraded from “substantial” to “severe” on August 29, 2014, and was briefly put up to “critical” in the wake of the Manchester bombing in May 2017.
According to the MI6 chief, the current threat from ISIS is “unprecedented”.
An EU report warned that more than 1,500 jihadists have returned to Europe with orders to “carry out attacks”.