Fears of new terror attack after a white van 'mows down 20 people' on London Bridge

London Bridge attack: 'Five held' as police raid flats in Barking 'in connection with terror attack'.

Metropolitan Police have raided flats in east London "in connection with a terror attack at London Bridge which left seven people dead".

Images posted on social media showed a police cordon around flats in Kings Road, Barking, shortly after 7am on Sunday.

Three suspects in a white van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing revellers at Borough Market just after 10pm on Saturday.

The attackers were shot dead by police just eight minutes after receiving a 999 call at 10.08pm.

According to the Telegraph, five people have been arrested over the atrocity.

Tara Milan, 24, told the newspaper that four men were detained in the flats and that one man tried to escape armed police.

She said: "I saw them bringing them out of the flat opposite, around 7am.  

“One man tried to flee and they shot him outside my house. They put him in an ambulance and then the others in a police van."

Seven people were killed and 48, including an off-duty British Transport Police officer, injured in the attack which happened shortly after 10pm on Saturday.

The Met Police are yet to release a statement on the raids.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/london-bridge-attack-five-held-as-police-raid-flats-in-barking-in-connection-with-terror-attack-a3556441.html

At least they're not coming out with this 'lone wolf' nonsense, as these three quite obviously weren't. And there is no way friends and family didn't know they were planning something horrible.

Thornberry criticises PM's speech
Posted at 14:57

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has criticised Theresa May for announcing a four-point plan to tackle terrorism immediately after the attack.

She told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend that she didn't think it was right to get "dragged into plans at this stage" and that is was a "matter of timing".

Asked if the announcement strayed into party politics, she said: "I think that it is drawing us into a debate. I think that there is time enough for us to discuss this issues.

"To come out onto the steps of 10 Downing Street, immediately in the aftermath of a terrible outrage like this, was not something that would be expected.

"I just simply regret the approach that she has taken."

I think I'm going to throw up.

I can't stand that stupid fat cow Thornberry, every time she opens her mouth something nasty and half-witted comes out.

In the real world, it was absolutely right for the PM to make a pretty forceful statement.

Attack brings out the best in London's Borough neighborhood.

LONDON (AP) — When Sue Brinklow dashed into The Lord Clyde pub during Saturday night's attack on London Bridge, she was among hundreds of people who found safety and a place to sleep in the Borough neighborhood known for its 1,000-year-old food market and its role as the backdrop for major movies.



"It's a brilliant community," Brinklow said outside the police lines around London Bridge. Brinklow, 51, and her husband, Steve, were trying to get back to their hotel when she was hustled away by police responding to the van-and-knife attack that killed seven people and injured scores more. Cordons were thrown up amid the chaos, and hundreds of people were left stranded.

That's when the door of The Lord Clyde swung open. "The landlord said to us, 'Just come in and have a drink. It'll be all right," Brinklow said. "We didn't have to pay for our drinks. He said, 'Just make yourselves comfortable' ... And when we found out how severe it was, we just stayed there."

Pubs, restaurants, hotels and private homes across Borough offered shelter in a display of hospitality that many said is typical of the diverse south London neighborhood. Brinklow spent the night with pub patron Chloe Beeney, who had popped in for a drink after walking her dog. Beeney said she didn't think twice about opening her home to the beleaguered strangers.

"That's the thing about being in Borough," she said. "There's bits that are very, very residential. It's still a community." Across Borough, locals offered up their sofas on social media, and hotel managers ushered exhausted tourists into their spare rooms, restaurant spaces and meeting rooms.

Richard Orme, 40, was part of a group of four people that was offered free accommodation at the nearby citizenM hotel. He said the place was full of stranded visitors. "There were people sleeping in the sofas in the reception and the restaurant," Orme said. "It was really good of them."

Borough — the name was initially meant to distinguish the area from the City of London north of the river Thames — didn't always have a warm-and-welcoming vibe. The southern terminus of London Bridge, the medieval capital's only cross-river connection, it was long the haunt of dangerous rogues, bawdy playwrights and disease-ridden prostitutes, many of whom were interred in the Cross Bones burial ground, a couple of blocks from the site of Saturday's attack.

The area's venerable market — where many bystanders sought refuge from the rampage — is probably its best known feature. It serves up everything from English specialty meats, Egyptian koshari street food and Kosher-style salt beef bagels (spelled "beigels").

It has also provided a setting for films including "Bridget Jones' Diary" and the "Harry Potter" series. Fans may recognize the area as the location of Jones' bachelerotte pad and as the entryway to Potter's wand-and-potion packed Diagon Alley.

People who live here say that the area has changed. The onetime slum is now overshadowed by a giant shard-shaped skyscraper and dotted with high-concept European eateries. But the friendliness survives.

"It's changed radically in 17 years," said Beeney, an American who has spent roughly that long living there. "It's been developed. But it hasn't lost its soul, which is nice." Brinklow said that the attack has not put her off coming back to Borough. Especially since she now has a friend in the neighborhood.

"A wonderful lady," Brinklow said of Beeney, who accompanied Brinklow to the police cordon on Sunday so she and her husband could get their bags. A wonderful neighborhood too, she said. The attack "would never stop me from coming here again."

Run, Hide, Tell? London attack response likely saved lives

College student Vashu Tyagi was leaving his dorm and heading to a nearby bar to celebrate the end of classes Saturday night in London when he saw people running frantically down the street. As three men with large knives moved through the area, stabbing anyone in their path, police yelled at Tyagi and others to get back inside — an order he credits with saving his life.

"Obviously they gave us good advice," he said. "I'm quite lucky to be here." As reports of stabbings in a popular London nightspot started flowing in late Saturday, police sent out a tweet warning people in the area to run, hide, then call authorities. Officers on the scene also shouted at bystanders to disperse, a response that experts say likely saved lives.

Yet while the Run, Hide, Tell strategy — known in the U.S. as Run, Hide, Fight — has been credited with saving lives in certain circumstances, some say it's not perfect, especially when a victim's first instinct might be to freeze on the spot.

"The best thing you can do is to get as far away from the source of the danger as possible," said Denis Fischbacher-Smith, a risk analyst and professor at the University of Glasgow. "But it's never going to be a universal solution. It's never going to work all the time."

Saturday's attack unfolded over a few minutes: First, a rented van veered off the road and drove into pedestrians on busy London Bridge. Three men wielding large knives got out of the van and attacked people at bars and restaurants in the popular Borough Market. The men killed seven people and injured roughly 50 before they were shot dead by police.

The Run, Hide, Tell strategy promoted by the United Kingdom's National Police Chiefs' Council says that in the event of an active attack, people should first run to a place of safety. If there is nowhere to go, hiding is the next best option, setting up barricades if possible. Then, when safe to do so, victims are urged to call police.

France has a similar strategy, and posters providing directions are meant to hang in all public places. The goal is to make sure people are vigilant and adopt the right attitude in the event of an attack, said Cedric Michel, president of the Union for Defense of Municipal Police.

Fischbacher-Smith said the strategies in Europe are an evolution of the Run, Hide, Fight approach in the United States, which started in 2012 in Houston, Texas. Run, Hide, Fight is standard protocol for active-shooter situations in the U.S. It advises people to run away if possible, get out of view, and if that's not feasible, try to incapacitate the shooter if there is an imminent threat.

Larry Barton, professor of public safety at the University of Central Florida and a threat assessment instructor for the FBI, said the strategy saves lives, but people need to make decisions quickly. "The longer you wait and deliberate ... the chances of your survivability really diminish notably," he said.

Hiding is easier in a school setting or office, where people know the building's layout. On the street, or in a stadium or nightclub, hiding is virtually impossible. And if someone choses to fight, he or she has to be "all in," he said.

In the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, roughly 40 people hid in bathrooms — where they were trapped for hours as the gunman went through the club, then became cornered when he entered the bathroom and began shooting into stalls.

There are occasions in which people cannot protect themselves by running. Many people didn't have time to run when a truck careened into a seaside crowd in Nice, France, last year. More than 80 people died. Those who survived jumped from the promenade onto the beach below or threw loved ones out of the way.

In a study to be released later this month, Barton analyzed 61 deadly assaults in public places such as arenas, nightclubs, coffee houses or other venues from 2006 to 2016. He found that 73 percent of those who survived did so by running, and they had no injuries or moderate injuries such as a sprained ankle. Twenty percent of survivors hid, but about a third of the hiders were injured. The remaining 7 percent both ran and hid, he said.

But for those who are out enjoying life, running or hiding might be easier said than done. Joseph LeDoux, a professor of neuroscience at New York University and head of the Emotional Brain Institute, said humans are evolutionarily programmed to freeze when there is danger, and a person can't run if they are frozen on the spot.

"It sort of short-circuits the entire slogan from the get-go," he said. Dean Mobbs, assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, said an individual's perception of the situation can also affect whether one flees or freezes. If someone feels they can't control a situation, or can't escape it, freezing is more likely, he said. In addition, people tend to greet horrific situations with initial disbelief, delaying their response.

But he said that after three attacks in London in as many months, Londoners are more prepared and will likely react more quickly. One survivor of the London attack said he decided to fight before he ran and hid.

Chef Florin Morariu said he first froze when he went outside the bakery and saw two people stabbing others. Then, he said, he began fighting and hit one of the attackers on the head with a crate before police told him to run.

"There was a car with a loudspeaker saying 'go, go' and they (police) threw a grenade. ... and then I ran," he said. He then let about 20 people hide in the bakery and closed the shutters.

In similar vein:

https://stephendaisley.com/2017/06/05/in-this-fight-victory-will-come-from-our-best-weapons-british-stoicism-and-decency/

IN THIS FIGHT, VICTORY WILL COME FROM OUR BEST WEAPONS: BRITISH STOICISM AND DECENCY
Posted on June 5, 2017 by stephenjdaisley
Even at times of panic and disaster, we cannot help but be British.

The security services face difficult questions because the 27-year-old Muslim ringleader, known to friends as 'Abz', even appeared in a TV documentary last year about British jihadists and unfurled an ISIS-style flag in Regent's Park.
He was also caught on camera alongside two notorious preachers who were well known to police and intelligence officials because of their extremist views.
A friend of the suspect had reported him to the anti-terror hotline after he became an extremist by watching videos on YouTube and police were also warned about the suspect radicalising children in a local park two years ago, giving them sweets and money to listen to him.
'Abz' also berated an Imam for encouraging worshippers to vote in the 2015 General Election and was banned from the mosque in the ensuing row.
A friend who called the anti-terror hotline said: 'I did my bit, I know other people did their bit but the authorities did not do their bit'.
The suspect, who the Mail has chosen not to name at the request of police, is understood to be one of three men who embarked on a stabbing rampage in London on Saturday night.
Gardai in Ireland have confirmed that an Irish ID card was found on the body of another of the killers - who is believed to have been born in Morocco but living in Dublin. Police say he was living in the Rathmines area of the Irish capital with his Scottish wife but he was not on their radar.
Scotland Yard says that it knows the identities of all the killers who murdered seven and injured 48 on London Bridge and inside Borough Market - but have asked the press not to name them.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4571902/London-Bridge-killer-slipped-police-s-net.html#ixzz4j87efd5r
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Oh, great.

A group of men on their knees facing the flag which was unfurled in the middle of Regent's Park as people walked around on a sunny day

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4571902/London-Bridge-killer-slipped-police-s-net.html#ixzz4j880MJeJ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Do they have the slightest idea how ridiculous they look, with their bums stuck up in the air as if they're looking for a lost contact lens?

I suspect a lot of passers-by decided they were just more nutjobs.

That photo is hilarious. Have a good laugh. They hate that.

They really should be laughed at more, shouldn't they? After all, they're crawling around the park with their bums in the air to worship some bloke they believe went to the Moon on a flying horse.

You'd get more sense out of Ganesh the Elephant God.



At least elephants are:

a. Nice, not bloodthirsty lunatics.

b. Actually exist. Unlike flying horses.

All loathsome people hate to be laughed at. They get really angry and make mistakes. Ha ha ha, how you doing with the 72 year old virgin?

IMO, it's very telling that all the recent attacks on the UK and Europe have been places where people are having fun, from Christmas markets to pop concerts.

They don't like people having fun either. All women should be covered from head to toe in black, plastic bin bags, and dealing with rickets.

And genetic illnesses due to repeatedly marrying cousins for generations:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394119/Its-time-confront-taboo-First-cousin-marriages-Muslim-communities-putting-hundreds-children-risk.html

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15328860.Nicola_Sturgeon_insists_Scotland__in_stronger_position_to_deal_with_heightened_security_threat_/

Scotland is in a "much stronger position than other parts of the UK" to deal with any heightened security threat, Nicola Sturgeon insisted as she said the Prime Minister has "tough questions" to answer over her part in cutting police numbers in England.

Scotland's First Minister insisted she was "not complacent" about the possibility of a terror attack but argued the Scottish Government's record of maintaining police numbers meant there is a stark contrast in the situation north and south of the border...etc.

She is TOTALLY complacent - not least because she hasn't maintained police numbers, and even worse, has centralised police control to the central belt. I shudder to think what would happen if there was an attack in, God forbid, someplace like Inverness.

Two of the terrorists named:  Khuram Butt (27) and Rachid Redouane (30).   I thiink one is of Pakistani origin, the other Morroccan.   LL

Thanks, LL, it will be interesting to see what comes out about them.

Mail:



Why are these scumbags always so damned UGLY?

bb1 wrote:Thanks, LL, it will be interesting to see what comes out about them.

I believe Butt was married with young children. LL

with all do respect to Mrs. Nicola Sturgeon, but how can she say that if neither she nor any person knows when terrorism attacks will happen.

She can't, Pedro - and Scotland is a very soft target indeed. For example, there is simply NO way the Edinburgh Festival in August can be properly protected. It goes on all over the city centre, with thousands of people from all over the world milling about.

I wish she would she would shut up instead of tempting Fate like this - she seems to have forgotten all about the attack on Glasgow Airport ten years ago.

bb1, your words are mine.