this is not used in central london. this is bbc news with this breaking news humming from london. i will hand over to my colleague. hello. this is a special coverage. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting on bbc one in the uk and on bbc world news. i'm ben brown. there have been multiple casualties. in the last few minutes, there have been reports of explosions and also gunshots as well. we willjust show you a map of where two separate incidents occurred, which may be related. this is london bridge, one of the main arteries crossing the river thames. that is where a vehicle, believed to be a white van, was driven at high speed, 50 miles per hour, we understand, swerving

and hitting pedestrians causing multiple casualties on london bridge, around half a dozen. shortly afterwards, reports of a series of stabbings at borough markets, close to london bridge. that is where we are, at one of the many police cordons thrown up around london bridge and in the borough markets area around central london. i am joined by tom symons, who has been following events as they unfold. what do we know so far? as you know well, when we speak to witnesses in these situations, they tell us what they saw. we are getting reports that a fitting together into a narrative of what happened here. we are looking at the van crashing potentially into pedestrians on the southern end of london bridge. i was

told it was just outside a pub near the london bridge station where people would have been going after a night out. several people jumped out of the van and ran into borough markets, a food market with bars and restau ra nts markets, a food market with bars and restaurants around it, and began indiscriminately attacking people. i spoke to one person who was a security guard who runs security in a number of different places around the area. he said people were running in his direction trying to get away, screaming, glass crashing. they gave their description of a man wearing a red and black top and around his midrift having cannisters taped to him. another eyewitness said that as well. i have seen pictures. he said he saw four people

potentially injured. just looking at what happened, we are looking at a very serious number of injuries. we are talking about people being attacked in the street by three men armed with knives. it is not clear who has been shot at this stage, but there were some shots, we believe police shot two, three, one, or some of those men. we are hoping police confirmed that at a later stage. some eyewitnesses have said on attacker was on the ground a p pa re ntly attacker was on the ground apparently dead, or not moving. another on the ground was obviously alive which is good news for police for information. i don't know what you think, but police are fairly relaxed. we don't think this incident is continuing. there was a report of a stabbing at vauxhall, but that proved to be something else. there are police helicopters here, not elsewhere. it looks like a very serious terrorist incident. the incident in which the van was driven

at pedestrians on london bridge and the stabbings in borough markets appeared to be related. let yes. people ran around the corner from the van, and people may get a better idea from the pictures that live around there, but it seems to be from the destruction of where the van hit pedestrians around a pub i know quite well on the corner of the bridge, that is close to borough markets. that is why we are getting reports from security. he said people have been stabbed in my bar, my cafe, my pub. other people are saying similar things. if the assa ila nts saying similar things. if the assailants have been apprehended, that would explain the gunshots by police. we had two separatist

against, one of gunshots at the time of the incident. i will say one thing, police and security services are on high alert and have military style training. they have military standards and are armed. they are on standby. also, the british transport police have armed officers as well, they may have come from the station and got involved on this occasion. we have that report of shootings. we don't know who has fired at who. we will wait for the police to know about that. people in the area may have heard about this, explosions on the bridge. that is after the police cordon went into place. i believe that would be controlled explosions. bags lying on the ground that they we re bags lying on the ground that they were confirming were not explosives.

an eyewitness talked about that and i believe that is what he heard. police are saying we should be calm and vigilant and alert. stay with us. and vigilant and alert. stay with us. i want to talk to eyewitnesses who saw the van driving at 50 miles per hour swerving into pedestrians and causing multiple casualties. we had two people on the line. i think you saw the van. tell us what you saw and heard. we were in the pubs and josh ordered a taxi. i left and got into a taxi and looked out the window towards the pub. josh had gone back in to get another friend. 5-10 gone back in to get another friend. 5—10 seconds later i see 20—30 people trying to run inside the pub, which i thought was rather odd. a

few seconds after that, a white van came speeding down the pavement and crashed into a lamp post or something, i don't know what. then two or three males, something, i don't know what. then two orthree males, i something, i don't know what. then two or three males, i saw them jump out of the van and run down the road. at that point the taxi driver sped off. he did not know what was going on. he thought it was some sort of terrorist attack. i thought it may have been a car accident. but the demographic of the people jumping out of the van, it didn't seem jumping out of the van, it didn't seem quite right. and what did, from what you can tell, what did these men look like? i would say they looked like they were two to three

males, jumping out of the van, aggressive, shouting. we were in a taxi. it was hard to know what was going on. from what i heard, it seemed like it was a car accident. someone lost control of the van. but the aggressiveness and the speed of which people jumped out... the aggressiveness and the speed of which peoplejumped out... they jumped out of the van and sort of ran down the road, it was quite the horrible sight, actually. did you see any casualties caused by the vehicle? no, i did not. i did not see anyone immediately get hit or anything like that. the taxi driver just drove down the road. we actually saw someone who looks like they had been badly injured. but i did not actually see the van hit anyone. maybe i could talk to your

friend as well now, joshua, who you are with and mentioned. to us what you witnessed. —— tell us. are with and mentioned. to us what you witnessed. -- tell us. yeah. so, robjust you witnessed. -- tell us. yeah. so, rob just chatted to you, he was in the taxi across the road. he got in. i went back to the pub. i popped in. we are talking 10—15 seconds. just getting my friend who we ordered the taxi for. i walk outside and i can't remember whether or not people were running in or what, remember whether or not people were running in orwhat, but remember whether or not people were running in or what, but i remembered there being a bit of a commotion. to there being a bit of a commotion. to the right of me, we are talking about two metres from the pub entrance, there was a white van which had crashed into the railings just to the side. so i could sort of zcithe

just to the side. so i could sort of zci the wheels were all smashed up. —— see. it didn't look too bad. actually, when i saw it, i said this sort of looks like an accident. i did not particularly think it was a terrorist incident at this point. like i said, i came up with my friend, christian. we looked across at where the uber had been and it was gone. there was no one in the van. we were running up was gone. there was no one in the van. we were running up some was gone. there was no one in the van. we were running up some steps just near the pub, the barraboy, i believe it was called. that is all we heard. and then we ran. my friend said to me "josh, run. call your family." we ran to london station.

there was not a lot of information being disseminated. people were walking around as if it was normal. particularly in the station it was as if half the people had no clue what was going on. even though i saw pa rt what was going on. even though i saw part of it, i sort of did not know what was going on. but i definitely saw the van crash into the sort of gated fence area. i saw this guy running up from, i think the stairs lead down to borough market. i saw someone lead down to borough market. i saw someone shout he has got a nice. -- knife. what was going through your mind when you heard those words, he has got a knife. to be honest, i did

not really believe that it took me a long time to understand what was going on. i could not believe what had happened. iwas going on. i could not believe what had happened. i was out there ten seconds earlier in the taxi and literally went out to get someone. the car looked too mangled, so i thought it was an innocent swerve off the road. so when i heard this quy off the road. so when i heard this guy shout he has got a knife, to be honest, i still do not believe it, really. it was my friend who shouted out really. it was my friend who shouted out "run, call your family." i really. it was my friend who shouted out "run, call yourfamily." i kind of just followed out "run, call yourfamily." i kind ofjust followed him. i did not react too much if i am honest. but, yeah, it was... it was certainly strange when i walked out. there was a strange atmosphere when the van was there. you could see it. i don't

think anyone knew what was going on. as soon as they shouted that, that is when people started running. a fair few people ended up staying in the pub, but i don't know what happened to them. i think they were all fine. all right. thank you for being with us. joshua and robbie, a couple of eyewitnesses. we are just buy one of the many police cordons around london bridge and borough markets. let us talk tojohn —— tom symonds. this is a picture of one of the assailants lying on the ground which has been released. alarmingly, he has canisters strapped to his body, it seems. this fits a description i had from an eyewitness in the area who saw three men. he said to me very clearly that one of them had, canisters, i can't clearly

say what they are, i can see from the picture, but they were taped to his body. it maybe they were just an effect. it maybe they had something dangerous to the public. clearly they did not go off if there was some sort of explosive there. one eyewitness took this picture. he said one of these two men on the ground was still alive. that is good for police for information. similar to the manchester attack, we want to identify who was responsible and figure out who they were connected to. if one of them is a lie that really is a benefit to the police that they have not had in the previous attacks this year. —— alive. i have also seen pictures of people in bars being told by police to lie on the ground as police go around and make sure there is no one

left in the bars who may cause harm to people in borough markets. what we don't know yet are the details of this police shooting incident. which police officers open fire, who was shot, who was involved, and what was the outcome? as far as i can tell, i have to say the metropolitan police have to say the metropolitan police have not put out a statement about what is going on. clearly they are trying to get to the bottom of it themselves before putting out facts. it seems that there were three people on the vehicle on london bridge who got out and ran towards borough market. eyewitnesses say that between two and four. some say three orfour, some that between two and four. some say three or four, some say two or three. the van must have been driven by somebody and we have eyewitnesses describing people getting out of the back of the van. that is at least two. one in the front one in the

back. there is clearly a group of people who have planned this together and acted together and who have gone prepared to do this attack on london tonight, saturday night when people are out in a popular part. that makes it different from the westminster ridge attack and the westminster attack which, again, was vehicle driven at pedestrians and a police officer stabbed. that was a lone wolf one man acting alone. this is clearly a conspiracy from what we know so far. that can be the only conclusion at this stage from what eyewitnesses say. the van had to be hired and driven by somebody. the people on the back had to have been involved in it. the descriptions i have had of the attackers from this man who tried to take them on. i think we have heard from him already, all from one of his collea g u es already, all from one of his colleagues already, he tried to take on the attackers by throwing chairs at them and trying to contain. he

clearly said there were three men of mediterranean colouring, that was the description he used, indiscriminately attacking anybody they could reach. he described to me and graphic detail a woman in her early 20s being stabbed at why this man and go to the ground badly injured. clearly there is going to bea injured. clearly there is going to be a serious number of people killed in this incident and we need to prepare ourselves for that. judging by the fact that we have three people attacking people in the street with no chance to get away, although the police are on high alert in this part of london, it getting here on time to stop people from being killed is impossible. that will be the next piece of news we hope to hear. people will be worried and social media is doing itsjob as all ways worried and social media is doing its job as all ways of connecting people. people in town will be talking to friends and relatives to assure them they say. it will be a long night. let me tell you that we hear that three hospitals in this

pa rt hear that three hospitals in this part of london are in lockdown at the moment. sang guise, saint thomases and one of the hospital are lockdown to keep patients and staff safe according to a statement. three hospitals on lockdown. but here from another eyewitness who spoke to a surly. i walk up to london bridge, past the bank, come under the cambridge and next minute i saw a geezer on the floor saying he'd been stabbed. i looked in and saw blood down. his may come back saying that honoured stabbed him. i saw works with nab ‘s that make knives who started stabbing a girl. —— i saw blokes with knives stabbing a girl. they ran up the road and i started telling everybody to run. i followed them and went down towards the bank towards borough market and then got here. they ran up to a tavern and

stabbed a bouncer. they were running in all the pubs and bars, i cannot remember all of them. i was telling people to run. i was throwing bottles, chairs, pint glasses at them. at the end of the day i was defenceless. what did you receive do? they were running up and saying that this is for allah and they ran up that this is for allah and they ran up and stabbed a girl, i don't know how me times. ten, maybe 15. she was calling for help and i could not do anything. i tried to frighten them with a chair, to get them away from her but i could not do anything. when you look cctv, you will see me there chasing them and throwing bottles a nd there chasing them and throwing bottles and glasses at them. i know it was silly but ijust bottles and glasses at them. i know it was silly but i just tried bottles and glasses at them. i know it was silly but ijust tried to save people ‘s lives. it was silly but ijust tried to save people 's lives. did they try to attack you? they tried to stab me. i threw things at them and as i

didi me. i threw things at them and as i did i hit one of them on the head. they ran towards me to try and stab me so they ran towards me to try and stab mesoi they ran towards me to try and stab me so i ran away. if i had slipped over, i would have been killed there and then. we can hear from another eyewitness, john stokes, who was on a bus on london bridge at the time of the attack. he spoke a little earlier to my colleague. we were approaching london bridge with the bus and i was preparing the tourists on the bus to get their cameras out to get a photo of tower bridge from london bridge. as we were coming on to the bridge the driver and i noticed two taxis on the side and somebody lying on the pavement. we

just assumed that perhaps the person may have been accidentally knocked over or something. as we continued along the bridge at a very slow pace, like we always do, we spotted another person lying on the pavement and we became alarmed. and then a third person and we started to think well, maybe it may have been a gang fight, because i know that area does tend to have a few gangs. then when we saw a few more people lying down and people running towards them we became concerned and eventually we had to stop the bus halfway across the bridge because the traffic had come to a stop. there were no police at the time we arrived so we are

assuming a must have happened within two or three minutes prior to us arriving on the bridge. i attempted to call my 99 and the police did arrive within about five minutes after we stopped the bus. sometime later there were lots and lots of police cars racing down to the bridge as well as ambulances and then someone in uniform came up to our bus and knocked on the door and told everyone on the bus to run. saw the tourists on our bus ran for their lives and we are chilly lost track of them because i was trained to muster them together but we were told to go to the far end of the bridge, not the borough market end at the other end of the bridge, towards the monument and then what

we noticed was that most of the blue lights seem to be in the dissident borough market —— vicinity of borough market —— vicinity of borough market. so i that whatever or whoever it was was happening right there outside borough market. we saw a few people being given cpr by...i we saw a few people being given cpr by... i don't know who it was, it certainly was not people in uniform. and that is it. so we had to leave our bus there our driver has now gone home and ijust arrived home a few minutes ago and we were unable to move our bus because it's part of the area of the crime scene. so, um, our bus is there, we don't know how long it will be standing there for. it may be a few days. we're glad you

are safe even if your bus is there. you say you saw people being treated in the road. have you any idea of the number, how many people were affected ? the number, how many people were affected? i counted eight. the driver and i saw eight people lying down on the pavement. some looked like they were lying on the actual road rather than on the pavement, in the road. the problem is that she was concentrating on her driving and i had was concentrating on her driving and ihada was concentrating on her driving and i had a microphone in my hand so i took my attention of myjob and i was trying to do two things at once, find out what was happening around us find out what was happening around us and then the people upstairs on the bus were all peering over the side of the bus and they saw all the people lying there. we came to a stage where a lot of the ladies on the bus and some of the children we re

the bus and some of the children were actually crying and, um, you know, and then we were told to run. so everybody ran and that is it. i have just gotten home so everybody ran and that is it. i havejust gotten home now so everybody ran and that is it. i have just gotten home now and so everybody ran and that is it. i havejust gotten home now and i don't know when we will get our bus back. what was the sense of urgency from the police officer. when you say they were banging on the bus tours, did you get the sense that you needed to run for your life or was that they are they wanted you out of the area? would you tell?” thought perhaps they may have been a car bomb or there may have been explosives around and they were just trying to get us out of the area for our own safety. i do know that when we got to the end of the bridge where we were told to go, a policeman did walk past me with a sniffer dog so i'm assuming that the dog was stepping for explosives. ——

sniffing. that is all i know, actually, having been on the bus. i probably don't know quite as much as what the people on the pavement... no, your account is very vivid. you touched on it earlier but, presumably you had to rest on your bus. to suddenly encounter all of these injured people on the road and on the pavements and then have officers banging on the door and telling you to run, what was the reaction, not only your reaction to the reaction of your guests? honestly i was more concerned about the guests because i do not flap so easily. but this policeman was banging so hard he probably made the situation worse because he was banging on the door which was closed and he was banging on the door and saying run, run, run! move, move! and so i said to the people on the

bus that they need to get off and they heard him shouting and camira, some of the women were crying, some children were crying and i felt bad because they were from all over the world and they were standing on my bus seeing all these bodies lying all over the place. it was a really shocking sight for people on holiday and on top of one of london's most iconic bridges. london bridge is known all over the world. so it... i don't know what to say because... it is so weird because i remember 9/ii. we were on london bridge as well when 9/ii happened and many of the americans were getting phone calls on their cellphones and they were saying things like oh, my god! oh, my saying things like oh, my god! oh, d! saying things like oh, my god! oh, my god! and all these years later, another situation on the same bridge. it is unbelievable. it wasjohn

it was john stokes it wasjohn stokes speaking to my colleague. we are here at one of the police cordon is close to london bridge in borough market thatjust to remind you, if you arejust joining us, this is a major terror incident. it is being described as a potential terror attack by the prime minister theresa may. we know that a vehicle was driven at progestogens on london bridge at high speed and about 50 mph and a series of stabbings at borough market. is he now from july witnesses who saw a man being stabbed in borough high street. we were coming up to the entrance to the underground and we noticed people running towards us. we thought they were running for a bus. we looked up towards london bridge and we saw a lot of people standing and look across the road which made us look across the road as well. my husband witnessed a

stabbing of a man who appeared to be standing outside a cafe. and then i saw two men, one who committed the stabbing, running down the street. i know for certain that one of them had a long implement in his hand and they ran towards the southwark tavern on the corner. when i tried to call the police we saw a metal chair being thrown and i said at that point to my husband that we should go. i saw a man with a large blade. i guess ten inches and he was stabbing a man, mike stabbed about three times. fairly calmly. it looked like the man may have been trying to defend himself but there was not much he could do. he sunk to

the ground. and then we heard three gunshot and we ran. yes, definitely gunshots. and we ran and that was all we experienced. a couple of eyewitnesses speaking on radio 5 live earlier about what they saw about a man being stabbed on borough high street, we can talk to the photographer we've two who took the photographer we've two who took the photographer we've two who took the photo we've been showing to you with one of the assailants on the ground with canisters on his body. hejoins us now ground with canisters on his body. he joins us now from ground with canisters on his body. hejoins us now from our central london studio. tell us exactly what happened, what you saw and what you photographed? so far for what i have seen, i came in