UK PM says ‘tolerance is over’ after bloody terror attack kills 7

British Prime Minister Theresa May has declared “enough is enough”, after seven people were killed and 21 people were left in critical condition by a bloody terror attack in London on Saturday night.

The attack, which involved the terrorists mowing down pedestrians with a hired van on the historic London Bridge, then going on a stabbing rampage through the popular drinking spot of Borough Market, happened at about 10pm. Within eight minutes of first receiving an emergency call, police had discharged an “unprecedented” number of bullets, shooting dead the three attackers, and hitting one bystander.

The attackers, wearing what turned out to be fake suicide belts, had used long-bladed knives to stab multiple people in the streets. Eight police discharged about 50 rounds of bullets, shooting to kill in the belief that the bombs the men were wearing were live. 

“The situation these officers were confronted with was critical – a matter of life and death – three armed men, wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, had already attacked and killed members of the public and had to be stopped immediately,” the Met’s assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement after the incident.

“Work to inform the next of kin of the victims is ongoing – this may take some time, as we believe some of these victims are from abroad.”

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley live statement #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket https://t.co/iYv3nC2EY9

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 4, 2017

At least two Australians are known to have been injured in the attacks – Candice Hedge, a Brisbane woman who is working in London, was stabbed in the throat while dining with her boyfriend in Borough Market, and a tourist identified only as Andrew, who was knifed outside a bar in the same area.

“I walked outside, walked across the road and a fight breaks out and I’m like ‘s*** what’s going on here?’,” Andrew told The Sun. “I start to walk towards it and all of a sudden a guy comes up to me with a knife, I duck it, he stabs me and I push him off, blood is going everywhere. He got me, but I dodged it. I ducked and weaved.”

A total of 36 people remain in hospital with a range of injuries, including one British Transport Police officer.

It was Britain’s third terror attack within three months, after a similar attack happened in Westminster in May, killing five, and 22 people were killed in Manchester this month by a suicide bomber who waited for crowds to leave a pop concert. Both the Westminster and Manchester attackers were British-born Muslims.

We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are. Things need to change, and they need to change in four important ways. pic.twitter.com/szq25idIC7

— Theresa May (@theresa_may) June 4, 2017

In a statement released after the incident in London, May revealed that UK security agencies had disrupted five credible terror plots since the Westminster attack.

“In terms of their planning and execution, the recent attacks are not connected,” she said. “But we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face, as terrorism breeds terrorism, and perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully-constructed plots after years of planning and training – and not even as lone attackers radicalised online – but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”

She said Britain could not pretend that things could continue as they were, and that change needed to happen in four ways: followers of extremist Islam must understand that the values of Britain were superior to those of the preachers of hate, internet providers must stop giving extremists the safe space they needed to spread their ideology, Britain’s counter-terrorism policy needed to be reviewed to keep up with the changing nature of the threat, and there had to be less tolerance of extremism in pockets of the UK.

“That will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations, but the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism – and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities but as one truly United Kingdom,” May said. “And if we need to increase the length of custodial sentences for terrorism-related offences, even apparently less serious offences, that is what we will do.”

After the attacks in London, police arrested 12 people and searches are ongoing in east London. The three attackers have not yet been publicly identified but Rowley said that there were no other suspects at the scene where the attacks occurred.

What do you think of Theresa May’s words – enough or too late?