- Seven people were killed and at least 48 others injured in an on London Bridge and Borough Market last night
- Three men drove a white van in an 'S shape' across the bridge at 50mph, mowing down up to 20 pedestrians
- They left the vehicle and began 'randomly stabbing' victims with 12-inch knives in busy bars in the market
- Witnesses described seeing victims with their throats cut while others fought off attackers with pint glasses
- Police shot dead the terrorists - one of whom was wearing an Arsenal shirt - within eight minutes of initial call
- Today armed police raided a block of flats in Barking, east London, as a major investigation was underway
- Terror attack comes just 12 days after the Manchester attack and 10 weeks after the Westminster atrocity
ISIS celebrates deaths of seven killed in London Bridge attack with sick posts vowing more terror
Police are today seeking the identities of three Jihadi terrorists who were shot dead by armed police after killing seven people and injuring dozens of others in a horrific van and knife rampage through central London last night.
The men, described as being 'of Mediterranean origin', mowed down up to 20 revellers as they careered across London Bridge in an 'S shape' at 50mph before they began 'randomly stabbing' people in nearby Borough Market.
Today five people were reportedly arrested in an early morning raid on a block of flats in Barking, east London, as police launch a major investigation into what is the third terror attack on British soil in the last three months.
Speaking outside No 10 today, Theresa May confirmed the London Bridge atrocity is not directly connected to last month's Manchester bombing or Westminster attack in April but that all three are linked by 'the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism'.
The terror threat level remains at 'severe', meaning another attack is 'highly likely'.
The terror threat level remains at 'severe', meaning another attack is 'highly likely'.
The three attackers, who were wearing fake suicide vests, shouted 'this is for Allah' as they used 12-inch hunting knives to attack revellers at busy bars and restaurants in the market, sending dozens of others fleeing for their lives. One of the suspects was wearing an Arsenal football shirt.
Witnesses said the gang smashed pub windows and reportedly cut the throats of drinkers as civilians barricaded themselves inside and fought off the attackers with pint glasses and chairs. One witness saw a 'dark-skinned' man in a red tracksuit 'calmly' stab a man three times while another witnessed a victim being stabbed in the face.
Armed police rushed to the scene and shot dead all three suspects within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call and placed the area on lock down.
Meanwhile medics wheeled away injured victims on stretchers while crying people wrapped in foil blankets were evacuated from the 'horrific' scene.
Meanwhile medics wheeled away injured victims on stretchers while crying people wrapped in foil blankets were evacuated from the 'horrific' scene.
A map shows how terror attack unfolded. The attackers were shot dead within eight minutes of the first emergency phone call
The scene remains on lock down today as armed police and forensic officers continue to piece together what took place last night. The terror threat remains at severe, meaning another terror attack is considered 'highly likely'.
Meanwhile:
- Witness accounts of the terrifying events started to emerge with revellers describing how they fought off knifemen with chairs and glasses after attackers stormed packed bars and restaurants
- A hero taxi driver revealed how he tried to knock down three men 'armed with 12in knives' while another reported seeing victim being stabbed in the face and chest
- Dashcam footage emerged showing the aftermath of the devastation caused by the van on London Bridge, with bystanders seen tending to victims on the side of the road
- Desperate families are begging for information on loved ones feared missing after the attack, including a 16-year-old girl who failed to return home last night
- Kindhearted Londoners offered beds, food and cups of tea to survivors as the city came together in the wake of another attack and #PrayForLondon trended on social media
- Today heavily armed officers raided a flat in Barking, east London, on Sunday morning as police launched a major investigation into the third terror attack on British soil in as many months
- The Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee in Whitehall this morning and insisted in a press conference outside No 10 afterwards:
Politicians faced calls to cancel the election next week but Mrs May confirmed it will go ahead as planned
- All parties except for Ukip agreed to suspend national election campaigning today but local efforts will continue
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan condemned the 'barbaric' and 'horrific' event as 'deliberate and cowardly'. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the attack was 'brutal' and 'shocking' in a tweet last night
- President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Britain, saying '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!'
- Ariana Grande, whose young fans were targeted in the attack at Manchester Arena, confirmed the benefit concert to benefit victims will go ahead tonight as planned with her manager urging people to stand together
Speaking from the steps of No 10 today, Mrs May said Britain faces a 'new trend in the threat we face' as she condemned the brutal attacks.
The Premier said there was 'far too much tolerance' of extreme views and vowed to stand up for 'pluralistic British values' that were 'superior' to the fanatics' ideology. She vowed: 'We will take on and defeat our enemies.'
Mrs May, who chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee this morning, said the election campaign would resume in full tomorrow and the election on Thursday would go ahead as planned.
The official terror threat level has not been changed and remains at 'severe' - meaning an attack is 'highly likely'.
The PM praised the 'great courage and great speed' with which police responded to the terror attacks and condemned the use of fake suicide vests to 'spread panic and fear'.
The terror started last night when three men drove a van in an 'S shape' across London Bridge shortly before 10.10pm last night in an attempt to deliberately target
pedestrians. There are unconfirmed reports that it is a B&Q and Hertz van.
An on-duty British Transport Police officer who rushed to protect bystanders was among the first victims attacked as the attackers abandoned their vehicle and began stabbing at random.
He suffered 'serious but not life-threatening injuries' and his family has been informed.
Some 48 people have been taken to five hospitals across London after the horrific attack. One of the fatalities was at London bridge, it has been reported.
'The men said "This is for Allah" as they left the van and attacked victims.
There were definitely three people sitting at the front of the van,' witness Eric Seguenzo told BBC News.
He added: 'I thought the van was travelling on wrong side of the road, as though the brakes had failed. The white van had yellow stripes, veered to the right and people tried to jump out the way.'
Witnesses to the terror attack heard at least 12 gunshots in the area, now believed to have been police firing at the attackers.
Ben and his wife Natalie were in Borough Market near the Southwark Tavern. They told BBC Radio 5 Live that they saw a 'dark-skinned man in a red tracksuit' stabbing a man.
Ben said: 'We saw people running away and then I saw a man in red with a large blade, at a guess 10 inches long, stabbing a man, about three times.
'I was across the road about 15m away. [The attacker] was dark-skinned and had a red tracksuit on.
'It looked like the man had been trying to intervene, but there wasn't much he could do. He was being stabbed quite coldly and he slumped to the ground.'
Police advised people who live within the London Bridge cordon to stay somewhere else on Saturday night if they could.
One witness said: 'No one was hurt from the van impact but as the men got out the van they started kicking, punching and stabbing victims they ran over. It was a rampage.'
One of the men suspected of being an attacker was pictured lying on the ground after he was shot by the police outside the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market. Another man was seen lying on the ground a short distance away.
It was earlier reported that SAS helicopters were flown in from their Hereford headquarters to hunt for the deadly terrorists.
The bridge is in lock down and the area around it is closed with bus routes being diverted, as armed police and a bomb squad attended the scene and boats searched the Thames for bodies - amid reports that people were pushed into the water.
Fifty armed police also stormed nearby Monument and Bank station with police dogs. The stations were closed.
Photographer Gabriele Sciotto, who had been in the area watching the Champions League Final, said he ran towards the scene of the attack after the three assailants began stabbing people in the Borough Market area.
He told BBC News: 'I came in after the men stabbed some other men. I ran towards the scene because I noticed this man with this kind of explosive looking belt on his chest, they were running.
'A police officer was trying to put himself between them and the crowd. After that they were almost coming towards me and I tried to run away. Then they were going towards the main street. At that point, I ran towards them.
'More police came over, I guess they were on radio or something because in around like two or five seconds they shot all the three men down. That is what I honestly saw.'
One of the terrorists was shown in a photograph lying on the ground with canisters strapped to his body after he was shot by the police, the BBC said.
The possible attacker was shown on the ground outside the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market near London Bridge. Another man was seen lying on the ground a short distance away in the photograph.
Describing what appeared to be canisters strapped to the man's chest, Mr Sciotto said:
'At first sight I thought it wasn't anything real. It didn't look real to me but I'm not like the person who could honestly say if they were real or not,'
He added: 'I've been in situations like this before, I don't think you realise how scary how possibly be until you put yourself into it, a policeman could have shot me because it was me, the police and these three men so I was lucky definitely.'
Will Orton, 25, said: 'We were in the Sheaf pub. Basically lots of people came running inside, we didn't really know what was going on.
'We thought maybe there was a fight or something outside. And then there were almost hundreds of people coming inside.'
He added: 'The bouncers did a really good job, they shut the doors and locked everyone in. There was panic - it seemed like it was literally outside the door.
People were coming inside and saying they had witnessed people being stabbed.
'They had seen and witnessed people being stabbed. It seemed like it was happening immediately outside the entrance.'
A bystander said a friend was in Applebee's Restaurant - which is opposite Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market - when suddenly the waiters pulled down all the shutters.
'They looked outside and saw two men lying dead in the street, one had what looked like a suicide vest on him. Police told everyone in the restaurant to stay inside, then a minute or two later they heard two or three shots fired.'
There were also claims earlier in the evening that a topless man had been handcuffed and taken into custody.
Drinkers are said to have thrown chairs and glasses at the attacker as he stormed the pub. Video shows drinkers in the basement German-themed bar Katzenjammers hiding under tables as the terror attack unfolded around them.
Jamie, a witness who was in Black & Blue in Rochester Walk said: 'We hid under the table and people came into the restaurant and knocked a bunch of stuff over, like the till.
'And then we ran into the the kitchen, where there was a bunch of other people and a guy had been stabbed and he was cut and he was bleeding quite a lot.'
He added that they waited in the kitchen for 'quite a while' before they were evacuated.
A woman, who did not want to be named, added:
'We were in the restaurant and we just saw three guys come in, stabbed someone in the face and someone in the stomach.
'One of them had a big knife, then he came in and walked around the restaurant, I guess they just kind of stabbed anyone that they saw and knocked things on the ground and then we just hid.'
Gerard Vowls, 47, who was in a pub near London Bridge, said he threw chairs and glasses at the attackers in a bid to stop them entering.
He told The Guardian: 'They kept coming to try to stab me - they were stabbing everyone. Evil, evil people.'
One witness reported seeing a van crash into a lamppost by the Barrowboy and Banker pub past the bridge.
She added: 'Just trying to get away at the moment. There are no trains leaving so we're just panicking a little.'
Barman Alex Martinez was forced to take shelter in a bin when a knifeman stormed the Borough restaurant in which he worked.
He said: 'I remember that I was working behind the bar and one man entered into my restaurant and that's it - I remember about the third table, second one, next to the door, a man dropped everything and ran out.
'I just tried to be safe, I jumped down behind a big wall, now I feel my pain in my arm, I feel pain. I saw that man with a knife in his hand and after that a man started screaming so I knew something wrong was happening.
'The man started screaming and dropping everything on the floor, the plates, the cutlery, the bottle, everything, he dropped it.'
He recalled hearing someone crying near his bin and said the two exchanged reassurances.
One man who was in a pub by the Shard told MailOnline: 'I was feet away from getting stabbed. Saw so many people literally dying. Was in a pub and they were at the door stabbing people.'
Hours after the initial attack two loud blasts were heard near London Bridge although police were said to have looked 'calm' about the explosions.
It is thought that they could have been controlled explosions carried out by officers.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called the terrorist incidents at London Bridge and Borough Market 'deliberate and cowardly', adding: 'There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts'.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the London attacks were 'horrific', adding they were 'targeted at people enjoying their evening with friends and family'.
Police responded to a third incident in Vauxhall, south London, which later turned out to be an unrelated stabbing. Officers are telling people 'you must run, hide and tell'.
The attacks in the streets of London come just days after armed troops were pulled off the streets of Britain.
Thousands of soldiers were deployed by the Prime Minister following the bombing at Manchester arena as she raised the UK threat level from 'severe' to 'critical'.
Police are treating injured people and carrying them away at the end Thrale Street. Members of the public were told by police to 'run as fast as they could' westbound.
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