London Bridge incident: Car, guns (?), knives - min. 1 dead

[MacCruiskeen]

BBC live updates:

Summary

Police confirm more than one fatality after incident at London Bridge

Pedestrians reportedly hit by a white van, reports of men attacking members of public

Police responding to incidents in London Bridge, Borough Market and Vauxhall

Officers understood to be looking for three suspects who may be armed

Downing Street says Prime Minister Theresa May is being regularly updated

London Bridge railway station is closed while transport police deal with the incident

Transport for London says the bridge is closed to all traffic

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-40147014

There are also eyewitness reports of at least three individuals involved in this attack. Will any of them survive to stand trial?

0:01 BST

BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on the bridge at the time of the incident, said the van was driven by a man and was "probably travelling at about 50 miles an hour".

About five people were being treated for injuries after the vehicle mounted the pavement and hit them, she said.

She said the van, which was travelling from the direction of central London, headed towards the south side of the river.

Ms Jones later reported seeing a man being arrested by police. She said he was handcuffed and had his shirt off.

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-40147014

The car was traveling southwards on the bridge. There are reports of further multiple stabbings in Borough and Vauxhall, both south of the river.



Also from the BBC, the following ludicrous piece of non-news. (When do these bastards ever attack anyone other than innocent civilians?)

'No indication' MI6 has been targeted

Posted at 1:33

Whitehall officials have said there is no indication the headquarters of MI6 at Vauxhall Cross has been targeted, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

[Harvey]

[MacCruiskeen]

^^Yep. Only four days till the election, and the Tories ("Strong and stable") are in a state of panic and disarray.

If there are no arrests in this case, or if none of those arrests leads to a trial, then you can be absolutely sure the bastards who did it are being run and protected by the state. There is simply no way they can all have escaped.

[Harvey]

Done

[MacCruiskeen]

Officers understood to be looking for three suspects who may be armed

Saturday night in central London. Hundreds of witnesses to the attack, on fucking London Bridge. Cops and surveillance cameras everywhere. The police on high alert after Manchester, with a General Election fast approaching.

- and they can't find and arrest three pedestrians with bloody knives in their hands?

[MacCruiskeen]

Harvey, would you mind shifting Ahmed's article to the Manchester thread? It's a very long article, it's about the Manchester attack, and that thread is well worth bumping anyway, especially now. ON EDIT: Thanks!

[MacCruiskeen]

Posted at 3:23

A picture has now emerged of what appears to be the vehicle used in the attack.

A white Hertz van is seen crashed into what looks like railings


http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-40147014

^^Where is it, exactly? (Ffs. Journalism 101.)

[MacCruiskeen]

Guardian live, 15 mins ago:


ON EDIT:

3:58

Gabriele Sciotto, who took the photo of a man lying on the ground with what appeared to be canisters strapped to his body, says they didn't look real.

Indeed. Just some poor guy holding a sixpack of beer?

-----------------------------------------

15m ago 02:20
Photo shows man 'with canisters strapped to body'

Pictures have been circulating showing a man on the ground; he appears to have canisters strapped to his body. The Guardian is not showing his face until his identity and connection to the incident has been established.



A man lies on the ground; he appears to have canisters strapped to his body. Photograph: Gabriele Sciotto

The photo was taken by Gabriele Sciotto, a Juventus fan, who said he was on his way home after watching his team play in the Champions League final. “I had just been watching the football at The Sheaf pub and I left. I was trying to figure out which way to go home and I went the wrong way.”

As he walked down Park Street he said a man came running towards him. “He was maybe 35. He was saying ‘run away, there’s a terrorist attack going on’. There were other people around and they started to run away.”

Sciotto, a documentary maker, instead walked on:

I’m a documentary maker. I was doing what I’m trained to do. It was dark, but behind him I could see three men at the other end of the street. They were about 20 metres away. It was quite confusing – it took me a few seconds to work out what was going on.

Sciotto said he saw them run in the opposite direction into Borough Market:

There was one policeman there, inside Borough Market. He was trying to scare them away. They ran towards me because the police officer was trying to chase them.

The three men ran out of Borough Market and turned left into Stoney Street towards the Wheatsheaf pub:

Suddenly lots and lots of police came from the other direction. There was a lot of shouting. ‘Stop, stop, get on the floor’, stuff like that. Then the police shot them.

The 25-year-old took pictures of the men after they had been shot, lying on the floor:

I could see one of them moving still. There was blood. I could see the police were scared. The policeman in Borough Market, he was trying to make sure that no one was hurt. He was trying to get them outside. The police reaction was very quick.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/liv ... ident-live

No attempt to make an arrest.

[MacCruiskeen]

Shoot first, ask questions later never. Yet these guys were armed only with knives, apparently, and they were already running away from a single policeman.

What orders are these police officers following? How are they ever going to find other members of the TERROR NETWORK™ if they can't arrest and interrogate actual attackers? It's almost as if they don't want to.

[MacCruiskeen]

The documentary filmmaker Gabriele Sciotto sounds like an observant and trustworthy eyewitness, and brave too. He says he saw the police shoot all three of those men, and that at least one of them was still moving after being shot. Are they all dead?

[MacCruiskeen]

Oh ffs...

11m ago 04:03

Police statement in full

Here is the statement from assistant commissioner Mark Rowley:

Since late yesterday evening [Saturday, 3 June], the Metropolitan Police Service has been responding to incidents in the London Bridge and Borough Market areas of south London. We are treating this as a terrorist incident and a full investigation is already underway, led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

You will understand that our knowledge of the incident is still growing but what we understand at the present time is:

At 22.08 yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge.

The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market.

The suspects then left the vehicle and a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge. He received serious but not life-threatening injuries. His family has been informed.

Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. (?) The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes. (???)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/liv ... ident-live

"Hoaxes"

What?

[Rory]

Culprits? Yep, Russia

SmartSelectImage_2017-06-03-20-41-26.png

[MacCruiskeen]

Rory, please, let's keep Russia out of this thread at least. And that millionaire buffoon Mensch. (And Tr**p.)

[MacCruiskeen]

If three men had a large van and wanted to kill as many people as possible, why would they leave that van at all? A large van is a far deadlier weapon than an empty beercan or a knife. Why would they jump out, armed only with knives (!) and "hoax" (sic) explosive vests?

It's almost as if they mainly wanted to create an impression for the media. A TV spectacle.

Who benefits?

[MacCruiskeen]

From the Torygraph, a theatrical dramatic eyewitness account:

One eyewitness, named only as Gerard, told the BBC: "I saw a geezer lying on the floor saying he'd been stabbed

"I saw these three Muslim guys run up and started stabbing this girl. They attacked her and stabbed another guy.

"They started running up the road, stabbed the bouncer at the Tavern.

"I was throwing bottles at them, pint glasses, stools, chairs, but I was defenceless.

"They were running up saying 'this is for Allah'.

"They stabbed this girl maybe ten, 15 times. She was saying 'help me, help me'."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06 ... aid-allah/

They stabbed one girl 15 times? This doesn't strike me as very efficient use of a terrorist's time, especially when that time is so very limited. You could call it overkill.

But at least we now have solid proof of three very important things:1) that it was Muslim geezers that dunnit; 2) that them Muslim geezers dunnit for Allah; and 3) that them Muslim geezers really, really, really hate women.

It's important that we know all this, and we know all this only because Gerard told us it was so. Thank you, Gerard, whoever you are.

So, anyway: In eight minutes, three terrorists using one van and three knives (and wearing home-made garlands of empty beer cans) managed to kill 2.33 people each before the police turned up and shot all three of those terrorists stone-dead, instantly.

I hate to be unkind, but that is not good terrorism at all. Frankly, it's crap terrorism. A shockingly poor performance. Them Muslim geezers should be ashamed of themselves. You call that terrorism? I've got a three-year-old who could do better.

You know what would be really good terrorism? Shutting down central London for six hours. Terrifying thousands of people and worrying many millions more. Setting off multiple explosions on London Bridge. Firing guns in the streets of Southwark. Getting it all on TV, worldwide, so billions more can worry along for six hours (i.e., for five hours and 52 minutes after them Muslim geezers had begun and ended their crap campaign of terror). Interrupting the tightest General Election campaign in many years and no doubt affecting the result of that election. Halting Corbyn's momentum and getting the nation to rally round strong-and-stable Tory Theresa just as she was crumbling in the polls. That kind of thing.

It would take proper, dedicated professionals to manage really good terrorism like that.

_______________

In unrelated news, Prime Minister May this morning convened an emergency meeting of Cobra and announced that "enough is enough."