Armed officers respond to 3 incidents in London

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Police said Saturday they were responding to multiple incidents on London Bridge, Borough Market amid reports of a van mowing down pedestrians.

“Info available at this stage: from 2208hrs officers responded to reports of a vehicle in collision with pedestrians on London Bridge,” Metropolitan Police said via Twitter. “Officers have then responded to reports of stabbings in Borough Market. Armed officers responded and shots have been fired.”

Reports of a stabbing in Vauxhall was later determined to be unrelated to the London Bridge and Borough Market.

Sky News said Prime Minister Theresa May said: “The terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism” as state broadcaster BBC reported multiple fatalities.

National Rail wrote in a tweet that “trains unable to call at London Bridge, Waterloo East, London Charing Cross and London Cannon Street”.

The U.K. has been the site of deadly terror attack in recent months.

British national Khalid Masood carried out an attack in March by mowing down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before attacking police outside of the parliament building.

Three civilians were killed on the bridge and one police officer was stabbed to death outside the parliament. Dozens of people were injured in the attack.

Masood was shot dead moments after the attack.

More recently, 22 victims were killed when suspected suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device May 22 in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena at the end of a pop concert. Fifty-nine others were injured.

The terror threat level was upgraded following that attack to “critical” – which meant a terror attack was imminent, but it was downgraded to “severe” after a few days.

In a tweet early Sunday, London police asked the public to “remain calm, but be alert & vigilant”.