A van ploughed into pedestrians and several people were stabbed in central London on Saturday, leaving at least 20 casualties in what police called a \u201cterrorist\u201d attack days before a general election.<\/p>\n
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Armed police opened fire during two \u201cterrorist incidents\u201d at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market, a popular nightspot teeming with bars on a warm summer evening.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe can confirm we have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London,\u201d the London Ambulance Service said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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Witnesses described a van speeding into several pedestrians on London Bridge and then a knife-wielding man sprinting towards a bar packed with revellers enjoying a Saturday night out.<\/p>\n
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One witness described seeing five assailants and several people said they were locked inside pubs and restaurants by police and had to come out with their hands on their heads.<\/p>\n
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Italian photographer Gabriele Sciotto, who was watching the Champions League final at the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market, said he saw three men being shot just outside the pub.<\/p>\n
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In his picture, a man wearing combat trousers, with a shaved head and what looked like a belt with canisters attached to it could be seen on the ground with two more bodies behind him.<\/p>\n
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Pictures showed medical staff attending to apparent victims of the attack and a helicopter buzzing just metres over London bridge, one of the major arteries in the City business district.<\/p>\n
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Police responded rapidly with dozens of emergency vehicles and authorities led shellshocked members of the public away from the scene.<\/p>\n
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The attack came more than a week after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert in the northern city of Manchester and days ahead of the June 8 election, where security is a major theme.<\/p>\n
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It also sparked harrowing memories of an attack on Westminster Bridge when 52-year-old British Muslim convert Khalid Masood rammed his car into pedestrians before crashing into the barriers surrounding parliament and then stabbing a police officer to death.<\/p>\n
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It is the latest in a string of attacks to hit Europe, including in Paris, Berlin and Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A van ploughed into pedestrians and several people were stabbed in central London on Saturday, leaving at least 20 casualties in what police called a “terrorist” attack days before a general election. Armed police opened fire during two “terrorist incidents” at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market, a popular nightspot teeming with bars on a warm summer evening. “We can confirm we have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London,” the London Ambulance Service said in a statement. Witnesses described a van speeding into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7468,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7466\/revisions\/7468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}