What we know about the London Bridge attack
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Suspected terrorist shot dead by police after two people stabbed to death
Paul Torpey, Paul Scruton and Cath Levett, Guardian
Police have shot dead a man armed with a knife in a terrorist attack on London Bridge. Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has confirmed two people died in the attack, while the London Ambulance Service says it took three people to hospital.
Footage posted to social media appears to show members of the public grappling with a man on the north bank of the bridge before police intervened and shots were fired. Another video shows a body lying on the pavement with armed officers pointing their weapons from several metres away.
The police have confirmed the suspect died at the scene and was wearing what they believe to be a hoax suicide vest. Cressida Dick said the attack started at Fishmongers’ Hall in the City of London, just by the northern end of London Bridge. Police were first called at 1.58pm and City of London police officers had confronted the suspect by 2.03pm.
An earlier tweet from the police said another man was detained and that a number of people were injured. Cordons remain in place at the scene.
Social media footage also shows police vehicles next to a stationary white lorry straddling the middle of the bridge. Another video, in which gunfire is possibly audible, shows people hurrying across the bridge in a southbound direction with northbound traffic backed up on the opposite side of the road.
In 2017 eight people were killed and 48 injured when terrorists used a vehicle and knives to attack people on London Bridge and in nearby Borough Market.
RT
London Bridge attacker was convicted for ‘Islamist terrorism-related’ crime,
released last year with electronic tag
The man behind the London Bridge stabbing rampage had spent time in jail for an “Islamist terrorism-related offence,” UK newspapers reported, as PM Boris Johnson has called for stricter jail terms for offenders.
The attacker was released from prison on probation, about a year ago, agreeing to wear an electronic monitoring tag as part of his bail terms, the Times and Sky News reported independently, citing government sources. The Ministry of Justice has ordered a review of his case, but authorities are yet to reveal his identity or share details of the crime he served time for.
Moments before the attack, in an ironic twist of events, he was thought to be due to share his story of “prisoner rehabilitation” at an event sponsored by Cambridge University.
David Vance
@DVATW
This is unbelievable. The Jihadi shot dead on #LondonBridge was not only a convicted terrorist who had been released on a tag but he was a guest of a Cambridge University sponsored conference in London today on “prisoner rehabilitation”. You just couldn’t make this stuff up! đ±
All Three of The Hague stabbing victims are underage,
suspect still at large – police
© Reuters /
The three people injured in the stabbing spree on the Hague's busy shopping street are all minors, the police have said. They haven’t confirmed or denied the suspect’s link to terrorism, while media reports claimed there is none.
"All three victims of the stabbing at Grote Marktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families," the Hague police have tweeted, without elaborating.
The latest statements suggest that the Dutch police are still looking for the suspect, described as a man in his late forties, and described as someone of North African or Middle Eastern descent.
Which would give him a 99% chance of being a Muslim, right?
No information on the suspect’s motive has been shared.
However, the Dutch national broadcaster NOS has claimed that "at this moment there is no indication of a terrorist motive," citing its own sources.
Chaos in the old European city unfolded just hours after another high-profile stabbing hit the British capital of London, where a man – who had allegedly been in jail for terrorism-related offenses – killed two people and injured three more on central London Bridge.
The stabber was shot dead by police on the scene, after being wrestled down by members of the public.
Hmmm. That sounds curious!
Paris train station evacuated after bomb scare
This story may or may not have anything to do with terrorism except that
it triggers a terrorist response from police and the public.
by Ellie Bufkin
Washington Examiner
A busy Paris train station was evacuated Friday afternoon after a potentially explosive device was discovered in a passenger's bag.
Authorities later determined the item to be an inactive mortar round and resumed service at Gare du Nord station in northern Paris. Gare du Nord is one of the busiest railway stations in Europe with more than 214 million average travelers per year. It provides train transportation to many European nations, including the United Kingdom via the Eurostar. Gare du Nord specifically bans inactive weapons, which people often purchase as souvenirs.
The incident in Paris happened just hours after a suspected terrorist attacked several pedestrians on the popular London Bridge in the U.K. The attacker was subdued and disarmed by several bystanders before being shot and killed by London police. Another knife attack in The Hague, Netherlands occurred a short time later in which several people were wounded on a popular shopping street. Police investigating both stabbings are seeking more information about possible motivations.
The attack in London left two people dead as well as the attacker. Authorities also say the attacker wore a hoax suicide vest.
Twenty people charged over 2015 Paris terror attacks
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Salah Abdeslam among those indicted over attacks during which 131 people were killed
A group of suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France, the Bataclan concert hall and bars and restaurants in Paris in November 2015 © Reuters
David Keohane in Paris
French anti-terror prosecutors formally indicted 20 suspects for the Islamist attacks that killed 131 people in the Bataclan concert hall and Paris cafés in 2015.
In a 562-page indictment released on Friday, prosecutors requested that 14 people currently in prison or under judicial supervision and another six who are the subject of arrest warrants stand trial for their involvement in the attacks.
Those charged include Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the alleged group of terrorists who directly took part in the killings on the evening of November 13, 2015.
The other 19 cited in the indictment are accused of helping organise or fund the attacks. They include members of a France-Belgian jihadi cell behind the 2016 Brussels bombings and Oussama Atar, a Belgian national who rose through the Isis ranks in Syria. Atar may have been killed there in 2017, according to press reports.
The final decision to proceed with a trial, provisionally scheduled for 2021, will be taken by French judges.
A group of suicide bombers and gunmen affiliated to Isis targeted the Stade de France stadium in the north of Paris, bars and restaurants in the centre and killed 90 concertgoers in the Bataclan. It was the deadliest terror attack in western Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Abdeslam was arrested in Belgium in March of 2016 having been on the run since the shootings. He was found guilty by a Belgian court in April 2018 of trying to kill police officers in a shootout in Brussels and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Paris attacks followed the killing by three Islamist extremists of 17 people at weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in January that year. Then president François Hollande declared a state of emergency after the Bataclan attacks.
Paris and other French cities — including Nice on Bastille Day in 2016 — have been hit by other deadly attacks since.
In October this year, a 45-year-old IT professional, who had been working at the Paris police Intelligence Directorate headquarters since 2003 before becoming radicalised, killed four of his colleagues.
In response to that attack, the government has launched a review of how its intelligence services identify signs of radicalisation among officers.
Days after the attack on the police, President Emmanuel Macron spoke of the “hydra” of radical Islamism and called for France to build a “society of vigilance”.
In 2017, Mr Macron turned some provisions of the state of emergency into permanent laws to give police sweeping powers in matters of Islamist terror threats.
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Foreign Office warns Britons of an increased threat of terror at European Christmas markets over the festive season
By SOPHIE TANNO FOR MAILONLINE
The Foreign Office has warned those planning trips to Europe over Christmas time to remain vigilant due to an increased threat from terrorism during the festive period.
The FO updated its travel advice for European countries including France, Germany and Spain.
It comes after devastating terror attacks that took place over the months of November and December in recent years, including the 2016 attack on one of Berlin's Christmas markets at Breitscheidplatz.
In the attack, 12 people were killed and 50 more injured when a stolen lorry mowed into crowds at the market.
Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market. On travel advice to Germany, the FO warns: 'There is a
general threat from terrorism. There may be increased security in place over the festive period,
including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds'
French officers patrol the Christmas market next to the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris in December 2016
On travel advice to Germany, the FO warns: 'There is a general threat from terrorism. There may be increased security in place over the festive period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds.
'You should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities.'
In November 2015, a series of co-ordinated terror attacks were carried out in Paris.
Three suicide bombers struck during a football match followed by several mass shootings and a suicide bombing, at cafés and restaurants, killing a total of 130 people.
Following the attacks, heightened security was put in place at Christmas markets around Europe.
Visitors and police walk through the reopened Breitscheidplatz Christmas market in Berlin on December 22, 2016
Policemen patrol the 'Wiener Christkindlmarkt' Christmas market in Vienna on December 2016, after
security measures were ramped up following the deadly attack at a Berlin market which killed 12
The site of the attack in Berlin at Charlottenburg's Breitscheidplatz has been bolstered with rows of vehicle-blocking bollards and a heavy presence of armed officers.
Similarly for Spain, the FO advises: 'There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at major events that might attract large crowds.
'Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Spain.'
In August 2017, terrorist Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, killing 12 people and injuring at least 130 others.
While ISIS has lost its strong-hold in the Middle East, fears remain that the group will target countries in the West.
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