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London Bridge attack: the eyewitness accounts

People are led to safety on Southwark Bridge away from London Bridge after an attack.

People are led to safety on Southwark Bridge away from London Bridge after an attack. Photo: Getty

Eyewitnesses have described their shock and horror after a van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before three assailants stabbed passersby near Borough Market, in a third act of terror on Britain in three months.

At least seven people have been killed, with 48 wounded who required hospitalisation.

Police have arrested 12 people in connection with the attack.

Facebook has created a safety check portal to allow those near the area to reassure their family and friends they are safe.

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Mark Roberts, a 53-year-old management consultant, told Reuters he watched as the van veered from one side of the bridge to the other before hitting a girl.

“It looked like he was aiming for groups of people. I froze because I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking, ‘Which way do I run to get away?’,” he said.

“Then three men got out with long blades – 12 inches long – and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random.

“I saw a young girl stabbed in the chest.”

One witness reported seeing at least six people lying on the ground on London Bridge.

A 25-year-old man, who wished to remain anonymous, had been driving across the bridge at the time. He told the Guardian he saw a man and a pregnant woman unconscious on the road.

“We thought it was a car accident but as we got closer we could see a lot of blood and bodies. There was a pregnant woman on the right who was severely injured and on the left there was a man being resuscitated, but he started breathing. We don’t know whether the woman survived,” he said.

“We had to get out of the car and there were lots of people screaming. And then ambulances arrived.”

Brian, who had walked out of a bar on Duke Street off London Bridge Road about 30 seconds after the attack, described the scene of the immediate aftermath.

“All I saw were dead bodies or injured bodies on the floor,” he told the ABC.

“I remember just seeing a lot of blood. There was a lot of puddles. I think it was more a knife attack than anything.

“I would say this that no matter what they do or what they try – London is always going to be strong, we will always bounce back.”

Another witness, Ben, told the ABC he saw someone being stabbed at the scene of the Borough Market attack.

“I saw a man in red with quite a large blade – it may have been, I guess, 10 inches – and he was stabbing a man. He stabbed him about three times,” he said.

A security guard working at a pub in the vicinity of Borough Market told the BBC he saw a man with canisters strapped to his chest.

Another witness, Gerard, said one of the men screamed “This is for Allah” before he began stabbing people.

He told the BBC he followed the attackers into a pub and tossed bottles at them.

“All of them [were] stabbing everyone. I was going to people ‘run, run, run’, I was throwing bottles at them, pint glasses, stools, chairs,” he said.

“I tried to help as many people as I could but at the end of the day I was defenceless.

“When I first saw them they went, ‘This is for Allah’, and stabbed this girl I don’t know how many times – 10 times, maybe 15 times – and she was going, ‘Help, help me”, and I could not do nothing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trl_5qvNQj8

https://twitter.com/rachaelvenables/status/871163860455219200

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