Five minutes of terror: How the London Bridge attack unfolded
Friday 4 June 2021 12:35, UK
By David Mercer and Alix Culbertson, news reporters
Terror returned to the streets of London on Friday as two members of the public were killed and several others injured in a knife attack.
Convicted terrorist Usman Khan, who carried out the deadly rampage, was shot dead by officers after civilians bravely intervened to tackle him on London Bridge.
Here's how the attack unfolded:
Khan, who was released from jail last December on licence, attends a conference on prisoner rehabilitation at Fishmongers' Hall, just off London Bridge.
The event at the Grade II-listed building marked the five-year anniversary of a Cambridge University criminal justice initiative called Learning Together.
Around 100 guests - including former inmates, prison staff, academics and criminal justice campaigners - and 50 staff reportedly are in attendance.
Shortly before 2pm at the event, Khan - armed with two knives and wearing a fake suicide vest - threatens to blow up the building, according to witnesses.
He pulls out two knives as people scream and are cornered by Khan.
Several people find themselves directly in his path and some are stabbed as they attempt to fight him off.
A woman named Coralie, who is working at the event, sees two or three people stabbed, some who are bleeding heavily, according to the Daily Telegraph.
One of her colleagues is stabbed three times, she said.
A Polish chef, named as Lukasz, who is washing up glasses in the basement, hears the screams and as he is first aid trained runs upstairs and grabs the first weapon he finds - a five-foot long narwhal tusk hanging on the wall.
Fishmongers' Hall chief executive Toby Williamson said: "He pulls off the wall this narwhal tusk and takes the fight on. In the next minute he's on his own.
"He's buying time for others to escape. In that time he makes a stab towards the terrorist and knows something is wrong as he hits him in the chest and it bounces off.
"He's got a vest on of some sort. At that point there's a vicious knife fight in which Lukasz takes five cuts all the way up his arm. He's hurt badly but doesn't flinch for a minute.
"He's then joined by two or three others, and now overwhelmed by numbers the assailant goes down the stairs."
Khan then fights some more people in the building's foyer before breaking through the front doors on to the steps outside.
Mr Williamson said Lukasz is still right behind Khan and despite having lost the strength in his left arm and being in a lot of pain, he follows him outside with the narwhal tusk.
Other ex-offenders at the conference help tackle Khan - including James Ford who admitted murdering a woman with the mental age of 15 in 2004.
Several of the ex-offenders and other members of the public try to tackle Khan to the ground, including an off-duty police officer who runs across four lanes of traffic from the other side of the bridge.
One man uses a fire extinguisher to tackle Khan.
Armed officers arrive at the scene and pull the civilians away from Khan one by one.
The off-duty officer is seen removing a large knife believed to have been used by the attacker.
Three officers surround the man on the ground, pointing their weapons at him, when a single gunshot is fired.
Khan is still moving and pulls open his jacket to reveal what appears to be explosives strapped to a vest, and is then shot again.
Pedestrians are seen sprinting in the opposite direction along the bridge and drivers abandon their cars and also run, as do passengers on the several buses on the bridge.
A few cars and a large white lorry try to cross the central reservation to drive away from the shots, but the drivers then leave their vehicles and run.
The Metropolitan Police say it was called to reports of a stabbing at premises near London Bridge at 1.58pm and the incident was initially treated "as though it is terrorist-related".
The force says a number of people have been stabbed and a man was shot by police, while the London Ambulance Service declare "a major incident".
Top counter-terror officer Neil Basu later confirms the suspect was shot by armed officers and died at the scene.
Mr Basu reveals the suspect was wearing a "hoax explosive device" and confirms the attack has been declared a "terrorist incident".
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick then confirms two members of the public have been killed in the attack - a man and a woman - and three other people are injured.
She says officers confronted the suspect five minutes after the force received a call about the attack.
On Saturday morning, the Met Police name the attacker as convicted terrorist Usman Khan, who had been living in the Staffordshire area, and say they are not actively seeking anyone else over the attack.
He was wearing an electronic tag after being automatically freed on licence last December - half-way through a 16-year prison sentence which was downgraded from an open-ended indeterminate sentence.
Police reveal he was part of an al Qaeda-inspired terror group that plotted to bomb the London Stock Exchange in 2012 and to build a terrorist training camp on land in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir owned by Khan's family.
A list of other potential targets included the names and addresses of the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, then-London mayor Boris Johnson, two rabbis, and the American embassy in London.
A review of all convicted terrorists released on licence in the UK is launched as a result of Khan's circumstances.
The first of the victims is named on Saturday as University of Cambridge graduate Jack Merritt, 25, from Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, who was a course co-ordinator at Learning Together, which organised the conference attended by Khan.
Mr Merritt's father, David Merritt, said his son was "a beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog" and "an exceptional young man".
He said Jack "would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily".
On Saturday, two addresses where Khan is believed to have stayed are searched by police - one, a flat in Wolverhampton Road, Stafford, the other an end-of-terrace house in Stoke-on-Trent.
Nazam Hussain, 34, who was part of Khan's group who planned the London Stock Exchange attack, is detained on Saturday night in Stoke-on-Trent on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts.
His indeterminate sentence was reduced along with Khan's and he is sent back to prison for a suspected breach of his licence conditions.
West Midlands Police say there was "no information to suggest" the arrest was linked to the London Bridge attack.
The second victim is revealed on Sunday as another University of Cambridge student, Saskia Jones, 23, from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Ms Jones was a volunteer for Learning Together.
Her family say she had a "wonderful thirst for knowledge" as well as "a great passion for providing invaluable support to victims of criminal injustice" - which led to her recently applying for the police graduate scheme, with the hope of specialising in victim support.