Terror in central London in the name of "Allah" and blood on the elections in Great Britain, just 4 days after the June 8th vote. A double attack was carried out during the night in the heart of the capital of the Kingdom: first on London Bridge, the symbolic bridge of the city, where a van hit several pedestrians and then three attackers got out and stabbed other passers-by; then into the Borough Market area, where the same commando continued his killing action before falling under the blows of the police.
Mark Rowley, Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism chief, specified the number of victims before dawn: "6 dead and at least 20 injured" (although medical sources indicate 30). In addition to the three terrorists. The official described the incident as "a sustained attack that began at London Bridge and concluded at Borough Market", adding that there are no other assailants and denying that there are any suspects on the run. But he highlighted that the investigations are continuing without excluding any external supporters. And finally he invited people to remain "vigilant". The motive for terrorism, initially evoked as a "potential" by Prime Minister Theresa May, was almost immediately confirmed by investigators. The sequence took place in a few minutes (8 minutes passed between the first alarm call and the final shooting), not even two weeks after the atrocious suicide attack committed at the Manchester Arena on May 22: where Salman Abedi, a young British son of former Libyan anti-Gaddafi political refugees, he blew himself up in the crowd leaving the Ariana Grande concert – including many very young people – causing 22 deaths and about 120 injured.
But the most obvious comparison is with another episode that took place in London a few months ago, in the area of a second famous city bridge, Westminster Bridge, when a man, Khalid Masood, drove an SUV into a group of pedestrians, killing 5, before getting out of the car and stabbing a policeman to death at the entrance to the adjacent parliament building before being killed in turn by an armed officer. If in that case the attack had taken place in broad daylight, this time however it took place after dark, in an area overflowing with passers-by and tourists on a Saturday evening. At London Bridge numerous witnesses saw the van, a white vehicle rented by Hertz, crash at high speed, around 80 kilometers per hour, on a sidewalk and mow down half a dozen people. Until three possessed men jumped out of the vehicle, all men and armed with long-bladed knives (30 centimeters, according to some stories), and they rushed to slash and shout: "This is for Allah."
Panic spread and the police intervention, albeit rapid, took place in a climate of enormous excitement. "Run, hide and tell," Scotland Yard tweeted at one point, addressing those at the epicenter of the chaos. While the sensation reported by the BBC is that intelligence had been taken by surprise again. Meanwhile, the trio managed to continue as far as the bar and restaurant area of Borough Market, where there were more stabbings, the attack on a policeman and the final firefight: sealed by the shot of a young Italian photographer, Gabriele Sciotto , with the image of two of the terrorists lying lifeless on the asphalt, one of whom is wearing an explosive-like belt. Theresa May, immediately informed, interrupted her electoral campaign as leader of the Conservative Party (like his Labor rival Jeremy Corbyn) and reconvened the Cobra emergency committee in Downing Street: which after Manchester had raised the terrorism alert to the maximum level ('critical'), the one that presupposes new imminent attacks, but then reset it to 'serious'. May called what happened tonight "terrible", Corbyn "brutal and shocking". While Donald Trump, in a phone call with the premier, condemned the massacre and offered help to his British ally. But he has also returned to mentioning the ban on laptops on flights. No claims so far, but supporters of ISIS, in full Ramadan, have entrusted their exultation to social media as usual.
