Updated: 8.30am, 5th June, 2017
– with RNS
Seven people have been killed and almost 50 injured in another apparently Islamist-inspired terror attack in London – this time when a speeding white van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men jumped out and stabbed people at Borough Market on Saturday night.
Three suspects, who were said to be brandishing long knives and were heard to shout “This is for Allah” as they stabbed people shortly after 10pm, all shot dead by police within eight minutes of the first phone call reporting the incident. A member of the public was hit by one of the bullets. Some 48 people were injured.
The suspects were wearing what initially appeared to be explosive vests but which police said were later revealed to be fake. Police have since made a number of arrests.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May said “enough is enough”.
“Since the emergence of the threat from Islamist-inspired terrorism, our country has made significant progress in disrupting plots and protecting the public, but it is time to say enough is enough,” she said. “Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would. Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. But when it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change.”
She said that while there had been “significant progress” in tackling extremism in recent years, “there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country”.
Outling a four step plan to tackle those behind such attacks, she said while the three terror attacks of the last three months – on Westminister Bridge, at the Manchester Arena and now near London Bridge – were “not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense”.
“They are bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division, and promotes sectarianism,” she said. “It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth.”
Ms May confirmed a general election in the UK would go ahead this Thursday, 8th June.
Earlier, London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said it was a “deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night”. “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”
He said his thoughts were with “everyone affected”, adding that he’d “like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night”.
US President Donald Trump tweeted: “Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!”
Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tweeted: “Our prayers and resolute solidarity are today as always with the people of Britain in the face of the shocking terrorist attacks in London.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted: “Again we grieve with wounded and bereaved, as they face pain and struggle. Today we pray ‘Come Holy Spirit’, Spirit of peace and of healing.”
Later the archbishop, who was preaching at a Pentecost service in Kent, east of London, warned that the UK could end up “hiding behind closed doors” and urged Christians not to be afraid. He was referring to the disciples hiding behind closed doors at the time of Pentecost.
“There is a risk of our nation becoming a people who flee danger and try and lock themselves away when our culture, our history and our calling is to be those who overcome danger and overcome those who cause danger,” Archbishop Welby said.
The deadly events coincide with two of the holiest times in the Muslim and Christian calendars: Ramadan and Pentecost, which fell on 4th June, and left religious leaders shocked at not only the violence but the timing.
Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, condemned the attacks in his home city in the strongest terms. “That this should happen in this month of Ramadan, when many Muslims were praying and fasting only goes to show that these people respect neither life nor faith,” he said.
The attack comes just two weeks after 22 people were killed and 116 were injured in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. In March, five people were killed and 50 injured in an attack on Westminister Bridge and outside the Houses of Parliament. The terrorist in that incident was also shot dead by police.
