up in that area between the police lines or if these are people authorities speaking to but the real police work is taking place a short distance up the road from where we are now. >> phil black reporting live in london. you've been watching cnn's coverage of the breaking coverage, a van striking a crowd of pedestrians causing a number of casualties. our live coverage continues now with rosemary church. thanks for being with us. have a great night. hello and welcome. we're continuing breaking news coverage of an incident in north london. here is what we know at this time. a vehicle hit pedestrians on seven sisters road. authorities say there are a

number of casualties. one person under arrest and a police spokesman says it's too early to tell if this is a terror attack. >> on twitter, the muslim counsel of britain says it was told a number of worshippers were hit. a section of the road is closed right now. police are not releasing any other information at this point. there are obvious concerns after vehicles were used in deadly terror attacks on westminster and london bridges. >> let's bring in ian lee. he's at the scene in london you' been talking to people there and people that potentially witnessed the attack. can you reconstruct what happened? >> let me show you what the scene looks like right now. you have the police who have cord kwaurd taped off the area. this took place outside of a mosque. a lot of people gathering around as you can see trying to find

out for themselves what happened. this say mosque a lot of people ended so people here knew people at that mosque praying the prayer which is the prayer that is done at night during ramadan. people want to know what's the status of their friends. what we're hearing from witnesses is that peep were leaving the mosque, gathering outside when a van karecor kareo a crowd of people. one witness saw at least five people on the ground, one unresponsive. he said this van sped up into the crowd. it did not, as he said, wasn't trying to avoid the crowd or break but looked like it was deliberate. that's when locals, the people around were able to apprehend

the driver and hand him over to police. this was a terrorist attack and anything like that but they say they are investigating it right now but one crucial thing is they were able to apprehend the driver of the incident and be able to question him. right now a lot of people want answers to know what exactly happened. another witness we were able to speak with said that after the incident happened, he believes there could have been additional people in the van with this drive driver. >> we are hearing from witnesses. they apparently saw three men exit that van in this incident in london three men apparently exited that van and ran into pedestrians in london's park.

two witnesses have told cnn this sunday and those two witnesses left but the third one was the one that was apprehended. the people there at the scene handed him over to police. we understand the two men fled the scene. have you heard this at all? >> reporter: we did hear this from several witnesses, but when we were speaking with them, they were unsure if there were other people in the van. there was some uncertainty when they said that they saw additional people in that van. so that's something we're going to have to wait for the police to come out with if there were in fact other people in this van but the locals were able to apprehend them. we don't know if the driver was trying to run away or open the door and drag the driver out but from one of the witnesses, this definitely seemed like it was

deliberate and they were able then to apprehend him and hand him over to the police once they arrived on the scene and again, from what witnesses have told us, there were several people, five to seven people we're hearing from witnesses who were on the ground. one person in particular was unresponsive and a lot of people here wanting to know what happened. the police here at the scene have been tight lipped. we're hearing from the officials from the they are investigating saying it's not a terrorist attack, at least not just yet. >> ian lee standing by there at the scene. it is just after 4:00 in the morning in london. we'll come back to you in just a moment. >> we're still trying to piece together what exactly happened. we spoke to hillary on the

street, witnessed the aftermath and told cnn's anna cabrera what she saw. >> did you see the person that may have been driving the vehicle? >> i've seen the vehicle and i saw a lot of people crowding around but i couldn't see him myself. there were a lot of people. i didn't want to get too close because obviously, you never know what can happen next but i did see the van itself, which is a white van. >> a van. >> outside the station, yes. a white van. >> okay. so it was a van that you saw. do you know how many people were injured or have any idea of how many might have been injured? >> i'm not sure. when i was down there, there were at least three people who were injured because we were g

being emergency services getting through. there were three seriously injured but there were actually more but just a number i can say for sure there were three. >> and what more can you tell me about the crowd outside that you were interacting with when you got out there? where did they come from? you said there had been some kind of a prayer event going on nearby and people were just exiting that? >> yeah, so the mosque is one of the biggest houmosques, there i big community there and there wereple there for prayer. there were a lotf people i think had come out from prayer but also people like myself who live on the street who had come down to see what was happening, to see what's happened to our neighbors and the crowd was very mixed ages, women, children, a lot of young adults and adults. women crying. lots of people panicking.

there was a lot of shouting in arab arabic, so i can't tell you what was being said from the people shouting in english, there was a lot of agitation, people wanted to get close and see what was happening, frustrated they were being pushed back and the police were very calm, not rising to any agitation and trying to get people back far enough they could get it off. at one point the fight was breaking out between the men that didn't want to move back and were resisting the police, so that calmed down very quickly and they did move back and in terms of the citizens i could see from the window, cooperating with the police and a lot of people standing outside trying to see what is happening. >> an eyewitness report there. she's talking with our anna

cabrera. david rhode joins us via skype from new york. thanks for talking with us. the concern at this hour is that it's four hours or so after this incident took place and still there are no answers to the many questions and this in the aftermath of attacks on the west pin st minister and london bridges, why is it taking this long authorities can explain to people there what happened? >> i think authorities are being cautious as they have been in past attacks in determining blame but the danger here is that there would be a sense among the muslim community there is a double standard, that this isn't being called terrorism when it should be. i don't think we're there yet. i think the police need more time. they are the ones who know who this person is that's under arrest. it's very important if this is terrorism, it be called terrorism. an attack on anyone based on

their religious faith is wrong and totally unacceptable. so it's important that that be the response if that's what the facts are if this is an attack targeting muslims. >> if this is what it looks like, it's worrying. it suggests there is sectarian violence going on in the u.k. again, that's a hypothetical. >> yes, a hypothetical but, you know, this is exactly what isis wants. this is what al qaeda tried to do and inspire. they want this sort of view that this is some kind of conflict, clash of civilizations, conflict between islam and the west or islam and christianity and if this was carried out by, you know, people who are non-muslims and they think this is somehow going to intimidate, you know, islamic radicals or slow down attacks, it's not. it's going to fuel more attacks. whoever did this is playing into their hands, and this is why the rule of law and these basic

values that the use of violence to achieve a political goal is terrorism, you know, whoever the attacker is is wrong and unacceptable and that's why this broad principle has to be applied no matter who the victim is. >> and david, of course, we know at this hour some four hours after this incident took place that one man was arrested at the scene. according to some witness reports, we understand two other men fled the scene. we haven't had confirmation from authorities of that just yet. but just going back to the man who was taken into custody, what can be achieved now? questions will they be asking him and how long do you think it would take authorities to eventually realize that britain will be waking up in a couple hours from now and people will be wanting some answers to these questions? >> you know, probably following the same procedures they did when there was this attack with a vehicle vently the last two

attacks in london, meaning they are readiaiding and searching t individual's apartment and seeing the motivations and if there were two accomplishes, they need to find them and prevent them from carrying out attacks. that could explain why they haven't said much about this case. they could be trying to, you know, find these two other people and they don't want to, you know, give any tips about how they might track them down. >> look, david, if we look at the area, it doesn't look anything like the last three targets, three attacks in three months in the u.k. there have been symbols of the state if you look at the westminster attack, there have been tourists targets. if you look at the london bridge attack, there is a concert in manchester. this is totally different. >> it is. that's what is worrying. the mosque has changed.

it was seen as a source of radicalism in the years after the 9/11 attacks in the united states but it's over seen by a new group of muslim leaders. it is not seen as a source of extremism as it was in the past. so, you know, it is worrying, to someone who doesn't understand the mosque and frankly doesn't understand islam might carry out this attack seeing it as a source of extremism but they would be wrong and again, this is -- whatever they are doing and if it was motivated an effort to attack muslims, it should be absolutely condemned. >> david, we have to emphasize again, we do not know the situation. we do not know what some of the details are here. all we know at this hour is that a van plowed into some pedestrians who were coming out of a mosque there in fins berry park. talk to us now about what can be done because we are seeing so

many incidents with soft targets attacking people. >> i think the fact they are waiting to determination this case is interesting. there was an event in times square a vehicle went into pedestrians and turned out the driver was drunk and there was no political motivation to the attack. i'm not sure that's the case in this case given that it happened so close to this mosque but again, i think applying an even hand, going slowly, you know, not declaring this, you know, declaring it terrorism prematurely and then if it is terrorism, you know, condemning it and very aggressively tracking down the cup culprits no matter is the best thing.

we don't know yet. i don't want to sound alarming and i don't know who did this so we should be cautious as well in the news media. >> david, thank you very much. and u.k. government officials are reacting to the news with online statements. london's mayor tweeted emergency services are on the scene and investigating a mayjor incident. follow met police and u.k. for details. >> jeremy corbin wrote i'm totally shocked at the incident finsbury park tonight. phil black who joins us now. phil, wt more have you learned about this incident that took place about four hours ago now? >> reporter: we're waiting for authorities the give a sense why they think it happened. what was the motivation. that's what all the people gathered here near this police

line. i'll move the camera to show you. this is where people have been standing. people up in the mosque at the same in the neighborhood. we've been speaking to people who say they witnessed the car strike the people. witnessed the detention of the man that people are saying is the driver of the vehicle. these are people who feel worried their city was specifically targeted and attacked tonight. finsbury park mosque has under the years, it's under new management focused on restoring the mosque as a healthy functioning member of the local community and protesting by far right national groups and had these concerns. tonight these people are worried that's what happened here.

they have been targeted specifically. a little anxious and agitated. some people here we've been talking to are however just very, very sad. innocent people being harmed on the streets. that's something that will bother everyone. if this is a reprisal attack against the muslim community. authorities haven't confirmed th that. for months despite the attacks that have taken place, two in london and one in manchester despite the violence, people have been stressing that this is a unified city and country. it would not change just because

of this violence but it does show and we're hearing and seeing the strain london has been placed under in recent months. >> phil, i'd also like you to address the information coming into cnn. eyens eyewitnesss told cnn two people in the van. one was af restrrested. that person was brought and handed to the police. two others fled does that square with what you're seeing? >> reporter: i have colleagues talking to witnesses. the constant seems to be they believe there was more than one person in the van, yes. we heard different accounts, could be two, could be three but consistently what we're hearing

now from people who say they witness this unfold is that yes, there was more than one person in the van but they seem to have fled. the one person believed to be the driver is who they were able to detain and hold on to until police arrived. authorities have in the confirmed this yet. they confirmed they do hold one person in custody they have not said they are looking for more people but just to reiterate what we're hearing from eyewitnesss here and at other locations close to where this took place, they believe there was more than one person in the van at the time that it plowed throh these people. >> yes, that's right, phil. that would be understandable at this point. they are not revealing much at

all but what are eyewitnesss telling us? >> some people saw it unfold. they talk about seeing the van actually run through these people. and knock them down and then talking about the effort bystanders and apprehend the person behind the wheel. that's what a small number of people we have spoken to tonight claim they saw all of these events unfold. of course, the story is handed along from person to person to person. so there are lots of second hand accounts here tonight as well as also why we need to be cautious in the information we're sharing and discussing on air. we have multiple eyewitness accounts. that's where we're getting the line there may have been more than one person in the vehicle at the time. in addition to simply what took place here, people are talking about what it means for them and their community and city. that's where i guess there is the emotion response.

there is anger, certainly. but also just tremendous sadness they feel the community may have been targeted directly and purposefully. >> we are still waiting for authorities to indicate why this happened and indeed, what the motivation was behind it. let's bring those viewers who perhaps have just joined us up to date on what we're covering here. this breaking news, a van has hit pedestrians in north london and there are a number of casualties. all the severity of the casualties and police say it's too early to know if this is a terrorist attack. three men got out of the van, one arrested and other two fled the scene. they believe the person arrested was the driver of the van. the police are not confirming two people fled the scene at this hour. >> police are saying they were called after midnight local

time. this happened near the finsbury park mosque. we have been informed that a van has run over worshippers as they left finsbury park mosque. >> earlier we heard from a resident of the park in north london. cynthia provided us with one of the early's photos we saw of this scene and it shows an ambulance and crowd of people. >> she wrote this on twitter, outside my window, loads of screaming, police have just arrived a few minutes ago. she described to our anna cabrera what she saw and what she heard. >> i want to bring in cynthia. she is one of the people who took these pictures that we're looking at on our screen right now, the one in particular that seems to be close. cynthia, talk to me about what you have witnessed.

>> i was in bed and heard a lot of people shouting so i went by the window to see what was going on and saw loads and loads of people gathering in the corner right in front across the road from my apartment. and they are very nervous, shouting very loud trying desperate to make some time to a police car further down just passing the road. there was a little bit of traffic at the time and in a matter of seconds the police car arrived after that. i didn't see what happened. i just saw the moment when everybody was ready screaming an shouting very nervous. >> do you know where all these people came from? were people just hanging out in the street? there an event going on? >> no, what happened from here

is this community in north london is a very mixed community. it has people from many different countries and cultures and we live perfectly fine. i never saw anything close to where this happened at all. we have a church in one road. and it's fine. we never had any problem at all in here. usually after prayer they gather in this corner to talk for a bit and i'm guessing because it's ramadan there is maybe more of them into a little bit later because it was so hot today, as well and so i'm guessing they

were the verdicictims. i saw them screaming and crying. i guess if someone was in the corner maybe they were there. >> so the people you saw crying, they appeared to be muslim because they were wearing muslim garb or how could you tell? >> yes, they were all wearing the white muslim -- i don't know the name of the vest, but yeah. >> so -- because i'm used to seeing them everybody day. maybe more than just muslims on the floor. >> the information we have are muiple injuries.

did you see how many people may have been injured? >> they were helping on the pavement helping to get away from the scene but i saw at least two on the floor i couldn't recognize because there was a police van from my window. i saw at least two of them on the floor. one of them i think may be was really bad hurt because i saw police officer trying to do cardiac massage trying to resuscitate them. i guess one of them was really bad hurt. they were working. paramedics were working hard on them on the floor for quite sometime and left them in an ambulanc ambulance. >> that was some four and a half hours now. phil black joins us again.

phil, you had an opportunity to talk to more eyewitnesss. who are they telling you? >> rose mary, i'm joined by a man who witnessed some of the events tonight. hello, sir. >> hello, good. you were in the area and i understand when you heard somethi something. >> we sit in the coffee shop and a friend he have his mobile and show us what is going on and said look, there is an incident in front of the mosque. there is some van. a big van crashing the people of the mosque. we just run straight away and i seen lots of police and ambulance, people lying the floor and van, as well. >> how many people did you see who were hurt by this? >> about eight to ten people, i

think, the ambulancehey take and i seen two people as well running away from the van. >> you saw two people running from the area? >> from the van, from the van. there was three people in the v van. >> did you see the man held and detained by people? >> i did, yes. >> do you know was he detained just by people who see who? >> it was. >> it was hard near the mosque you play. >> yes, yesterday we was praying for unity. because what happened in the tower is a very sad thingme. people lost their lives. it's sad what is happening and the lead of the counsel is lots

in the tower praying for the one killed. so we looking for piece and looking for peace. we don't want people to divide us. >> are you worried your community has been deliberately targeted tonight? >> i can't say they are targeted, the community. i can say this attack is like by criminal. it's an attack on people. it's like doesn't matter who you are, a muslim or christian. these are criminal people. they do these things to anybody. these people have probably mental problem or drugs or whatever because nobody like in their right mind to come and jump or killing people because

we see this one before like few weeks ago, one month ago in london, theerror attack and erybody like scared, worried about it andow we see it repeated again. and we don't know yet. we can't say who has done it. why it's been done. what is the things behind it? nobody knows yet, the truth, you know. >> this is true. we don't know. we can't stress that enough. the police have not said why this has happened tonight, what the motivation was, who did this. but i've been speaking to people here tonight that have been and they are sad and angry that this has happened to them outside their mosque. i imagine you can understand why that's the case. >> yes, i think this area is full of you can say muslim majority in this area, like lots of people here like from algiera

and from the arab country and a lot of people as well like from somalia. survey strong muslim community, this area and what is happening today i think is the people must be extremely, extremely sad and the people here are very concerned like they say this is a terror attack. it's not actually accident or incident. and the people that want to see the media report the truth because now i think the trust goes away because people don't trust the media special like people they say when something happening, to the muslim people, the media is not important but if another things happen to different people the media would be a stretch away. this can affect the relationship between the community between the must almolim community, the

community. this can affect them, you know. >> we have to make sure that doesn't happen, right? >> yeah, we pray for unity and pe because these people try to separate the community. they try to make a division, make, you know, hate us and i don't think they will succeed because we are pure. we feel like yes, this might happen but still looking for peace and looking for unity, looking for -- because we are all looking for unity and peace. nobody looking for trouble or crime. >> thank you very much for sharing that with us tonight, we're grateful. >> thank you. >> good luck to you and your community. you heard the concerns there,

what people are talking about here, we don't know what happened and why specifically yet that authorities haven't confirmed that. this was targeted violence and meant to deliberately hurt and perhaps kill people who were worshipping in the mosque or in this area tonight and that's a profound were because that serves to so further divisions and hatreds following the other violence that this city has seen with other recent terror attacks in recent months. >> many thanks to our phil black there at the scene talking to another eyewitness and of course, we are still waiting to hear from authorities to shed some light on what happened here, why and who the motivation was and until that happens, the anxiety will continue to grow. >> let's bring in cnn law enforcement contributor steve moore now. steve, first of all, it's more than four hours after the attack

and we essentially got almost no information from the police in london. what does that tell you? >> it tells me police, especially the metropolitan police will want to take any incident that is not terrorism and immediately say sos soon as they can to call the public fears. the fact they haven't said that in four hours leads me to a hard conclusion. >> the problem is of course, steve, that the more time that pasts, the more anxious people are getting for the muslim community, they are feeling they were targeted here. we don't know at this hour what the situation was but this is the problem that authorities in britain are facing right now. >> well, i want to point out that at the bombing in manchester it took the police

hours, i believe, before they said it was terrorism. this is not specifically being delayed because they don't want to have to say it is. it's being delayed for the same reason any other announcement is delayed. they want to be certain and they want to be able before the time is out, they want to be able to go and start investigating. it could make it harder for them to apprehend certain people. >> what is law enforcement doing now at this hour? >> they got one person here. they are going to determine whether there were more. that may be completely accurate. i can tell you in cases like this that i've worked, it's

almost every time multiple people report one or three. so they are trying to determine who is involved and what their circle of friends and associates were and others involved and whether this was -- who the motivation was, whether this is one potential attack and i'm speaking hypothetically or whether there were others that might be in progress. reports suggestingaring a number that there were three men in that van, one of course we know we have just been discussing was taken into custody. the other two apparently according to the eyewitness reports fled the scene. police are refusing to confirm but that would be understanda e

understandable. >> yes, one thing i wouldn't do is make premature announcements to the moo edia, which might negatively impact my ability to arrest or locate people who would otherwise flee. so this is absolutely normal. this is what i would be expecting them to do and i would also suspect that or expect if this is an intentional act against the muslim community, it would be deemed an act of terror. it might not be an international terror attack. it might be a domestic u.k. attack where the attempt to influence or co-horse ocho group of people. >> how do you check if people is that did this were acting with support especially with eyewitnesss there were two more

people in the van that fled? >> well, this could be again, like the isis attacks that are no different. it's people that are angry and want to hurt innocent people. this could be something like that where it was a small group or cell that decided that they wanted to act and there may not be any larger group, however, you are going to look at the person you have in custody and the police do monitor groups whether they are extreme left wing or extreme righting and they will have information on this person if they are affiliated with a racist group and they will be able to determine then whether they are potentially at least looking at a larger operation. >> cnn contributor steve moore. many thanks to you. no doubt we'll come back to you in the minutes and hours ahead. many thanks. let's recap the breaking

news we're following this hour. authorities say a vehicle has hit pedestrians and there are quote a number of casualties. that's pretty much the only qualifications authorities are giving us at this hour. police say they were called to an incident on seven sisters road after midnight local time in northern london. >> the incident took place in neighborhood near a large mosque. the muslim kucounsel of britain said it's been informed a van ran over people as they were leaving that mosque, witnesses tell cnn three men apparently got out of that van and one of them was arrested and the two others fled. now a metropolitan police spokesman said it's too early to say if the collision is a terror incident. phil plaqblack joins us now. you had an opportunity to talk to more people and what have they been telling you? >> rosemary, talking about a big concern among members of the

community is they were targeted deliberately. this is one or more that have gone out of their way to hurt members of the community tonight. of course, there will be real consequences for this community and the muslim community and across london, as well to give you a sense and talk about that more i'm joined now by an elected counselor in an area in east london, not north london but you've come out here tonight. >> definitely. this is an implication on the muslim community in london. people will wake up todaynd realize what's happened. most people are awake after the messages people have received on social media andthat, yeah? people will be scared and petrified because people that have just gone to the mosque on the month of ramadan and run people down. we heard there is a fatality and that may increase. this is sending a shock wave within the muslim community and wider society because people will wake up.

we had disaster after disaster and got another copy cat type of an attack. we as a muslim community feel we've been terrorterrorized. this particular action is any form of an attack taking place we call terrorism. the only problem we're concerned about now, the definition of terrorism does not apply here. what we're seeing talking to other people, we're saying that definition needs to change because otherwise it is not fair. people are angry and a lot of people on social media say this is a terrorist attack on the muslim community. >> waiting for confirmation from the police for them to determine who these people were and what they are motivating. there is no doubt if they were motivated by their own ideology and religious believes and politics and whatever, that fits the definition of terrorism as any attack does. i have to stress we're not saying that for certain because the police haven't told us just yet. >> that's what the public is saying and that's the discussion on facebook. we're having a lot of discussion

on facebook we as coal mitt tco leaders, this is a time we have to be sensible and this is what extremists want. they want to divide our community and make tension within the community and what they have done on the religious date and month, people coming back from prayer and actually terrorized the people because a lot of muslim people when they go to the mosque will feel very, very scared. we as a community will look at how we safeguard these institutions. we got to stop thinking about how we safeguard mosques. there is a lot of security implication we as a society now will really have to think about. >> we have to think if this proves to be the worst-case scenario as we discuss it may be and people fear strongly. >> just to let you know, it's adele lib r a deliberate attack. for a vehicle to come off the road onto the pavement and knock people down, that's a clear intention. all we're waiting for now is the

factual information to confirm to the media and everyone it is an attack, yeah. >> correct, we're reporting what witnesses are telling us and they are telling it as you have. if this proves to be the worst-case scenario, there are consequences for the rest of us following the attack at westminster and london bridge and manchester, people in london are going out of their way to say and insist we're united and will not be divided and we do not blame members of the muslim community for this. >> we're very tolerant. they apprehended him. the must almo the muslim community will work together. there has not been a problem, yeah. but now what we're facing is not someone that's actually using a similar kind of copy cat kind of behavior the way other extremism

terrorists have been doing so and applying at a time of worship. this sends a symbolic message. will it become more regular and fr frequent. if that's the case, they have to safeguard the community. >> tell me about the mood among muslim communities this year, particularly following other vent t recent terror attacks. >> the increase of hate and attacks, islam phobic i attacksn people indicate that. every time there is an attack, we have a backlash. innocent people being abused, you know, even my daughter when she was on the tube, she was harassed. we have to live with this. it's not just harassment and physical. people using terrorist forms of means in order to put fear into the muslim community, maybe it's a symbolic message saying look, something happened on london

bridge. we can do the same. the question is what our government will do about this. >> and we as londonests, what do we do about this? >> we'll stay united and not allow forms of extremists to divide us. we're getting support and people will wake up tomorrow. the church will wake up from different backgrounds and be in shock to hear worshippers in front of a mosque have been attacked in the same way people attacked on london bridge and i think we're uniting on this. we're a strong community. we're not going to allow thoese attacks to divide us and bring change so we can safeguard the whole of our society. >> thank you very much. thank you for those thoughts. there you go. i think very powerfully put, the sense of fear and anger this potential attack spread not just here in finsbury attack and across london. this is the news people will be waking up to shortly if not already and it's going to worry

a lot of people because there's been a big effort to insist and to prove and to show that this is a united city despite the violent acts of a very small number of people here. back to you. >> all right. many thanks to phil black there at the scene talking to many eyewitnesss there and we're still to hear fromexactly happe what the motivation was. >> let's bring in ian lee also at the scene in london. ian, there is something that we haven't talked about yet, which is the way the crowd reacted when the van ran into the pedestrians. they seem to react with remarkable composure. all the eyewitnesss accounts are saying that they grabbed the men, one out drivers or at least one of the people in the van and took him to police. >> reporter: that's right and that's something we heard that

he struggled to try to get away. we have a witness here who was there and just tell me about that. tell me what did you see and what did you hear? >> the first what happened, we were finish prayer. we come by the mosque and a brother collapse there, the odd man too sick so we want to help him. i'm going to help him, the guy so i know him long time. we play together at our mosque so we know. i know him where he live and i know the guy. so he collapse there. so i wanted to help him but i don't know why he collapse but some reason is not well, anyway. so i'm going his house. so people come to him. i say please, give me air. move away. so they move away. so i said i'm going to his family house. so i went out and we got unlock the door and i said your daddy collapse.

they come out, two boys and one girl and work together. when we come the way out, a little bit farther, we see, we saw the van go inside. and we hear the noise scream to people, shout and cry. when i come, i see the guy he come out to the van. he ran away. two brothers, two younger brothers attacking to catch him. you catch him and hold him and the police hold this guy. so i want to go back to the people to help him. call the police. another asia woman said -- one of the family, she's there. she call the police and call ambulance. >> how many people did you see on the ground and injured? >> seven. one passed away now. the old man collapsed before, he passed away now. i hear he passed away and other two woman and another four guys. >> reporter: did you see anyone

else in the van? there are reports there are more people in the van? >> no, no, absolutely not. only one person. >> the van, one of the under the vehicle the someone called me and said someone is under the vehicle. so i'm coming out, so i want to try to help. the wheel hit him. i call the other people and say please, come here inside there. i call. so people at the local say we go. so they come and push the van and we take off the guy and put it there. >> reporter: someone was trapped under the van. >> yeah, you want to kill all of them. he find the people and he want to go inside. he tried to kill people. >> reporter: you don't think this was -- >> no, no. absolutely not. because where we are and where he go inside there and kill the people is different, man. absolutely. >> reporter: what does this mean for the community?

ramadan and people praying. >> we pray together. i know him. call the prayer. so i want to call the people to come to prayer all the time. so i know him r, the guy collapsed. >> what happened at west minister bridge and what happened at london bridge. >> for your boss, what do your r -- for your mosque, what do you tell the people now? >> you take it patient and waiting for the police. >> reporter: how does the community move forward from this? how do you -- >> we tell the people you have to, for example, like me, i have

shift -- >> be careful. >> you can't go alone. we never know that. >> reporter: what are you scared about? >> we have trouble before. people come and attack. and sometimes engishly they call it. somemes they come here and please, push out. we have mosque. >> reporter: do you think the police are doing enough to protect your community? >> after almost happen, they come to police. we scream there. we're waiting for the police. we waited on ambulance. they come in. they don't come on time. that's why i'm scared. they don't know what they do. they don't know where they started. i said, look, this guy will be with two others taken in this guy. >> reporter: what do you want the police to do?

what would you like to see the mayor do or prime minister do? >> no one can do nothing. if someone evil, it become evil. they're all the same british people. so please do whatever you can. so this guy, he try to kill the people. it's not important. defending the muslim. it's like what happened talk on the news, talk on the news, listen to everyone, so maybe say that sometimes people treat it. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> reporter: so this is the community, also, really that's trying to figure out what happened. i think the two big questions they are trying to figure out right now. what were the motives behind this incident? what was going through this person's head?

fortunately, they have the man who was driving this van so they'll be able to question him. also, he didn't see any other people, we've heard from other eyewitnesss that said there could have been other people there, that's something for the police, although the police aren't commenting if there were more people involved. we'll have to wait for more information to come out. >> all right. cnnian lee reporng from there at the scene of the incident. isamel refrequencied the earlier. it's worth pointing out you were not an eyewitness to this, but what are people in the area saying to you about what happened and how they're feeling at this hour, it's nearly 5:00 in the morning there in london? >> i think it's really important to highlight when the incident actually took place and i think it was main stream media in terms of how it was being

reported. it's 20 minutes apart from midnight, that has value. the night prior within both mosques in that area and exactly that time, so the thousands will be in the mosque. it's very intentional attack against the muslim community. >> and that is critical, isn't it, the time that this took place, what more is being said there about what exactly happened, how this unfolds, of course, we're still waiting to hear from authorities about the motivation behind these, perhaps, three men that were in the vehicle. we do no one, at least, is in the custody and answers will come soon, perhaps. >> what we do know so far is in terms of the tierming that the event took place, the fact it took place in very very close proximity to the mosques, the fact that the victims were from

muslim background and from eyewitness testimony the guilty -- i'd like to say the terrorist. i overheard the fact they're waiting to concern this with the police. whatever you're calling right now. he had statements so on and so forth. so it's worrying to say the very least. i think it's really important whatever is given out, the main stream media portrayed as it is. it's not the case that it has the best unit, somebody who was full of hate that attacks muslims. >> i want to bring our viewers information that's coming in to us here at cnn. the london police have now confirmed that one person has been pronounced dead. we know at least one person was killed in this incident. this squares with what eyewitness was just saying to cnn moments ago. so, certainly, all of this information is coming back to us

and that we're koe lacoalating the witness account are proving to be accurate. >> i'm not surprised. that's very interesting to see how things play out. i think it's very cautious from the authorities in terms of what they should or shouldn't say. people living in the community the words, terrorist attack coming left right and center. very surprised if the local authorities do call it, even though, by the way things seem at the moment. it matches almost the exact attack that happened in london bridge only a few weeks ago. >> ismail, why do you say that. >> reporter: it fits the exact same boxes. it's done out of hate and puts fear into the heart of a particular community. the community as it is right now, on the back of the attack, you know, my uncle will joke around saying, you know, the family carried second just in

case somebody causes it. he said -- genuine, you know, people are afraid to stand near the train because they are genuinely scared because people pushed them over simply because they're muslim. something like this fits into this. we do hope and expect that nationally and internationally what it is. >> we do appreciate that. thank you so much for talking with us. >> we've been covering this first for the last couple of hours for us. he's near the site of the attack. phil, what can you tell us? >> what we have is update metropolitan police. it's quite a bit to go through. what they're telling us is that one man was pronounced dead at the scene. officers, they say, are in the process of calling this person's next of kin.

eight people were injured and taken to three separate hospitals. two people treated at the scene for minor injuries. they then say -- this is an interesting point to make -- at this stage there are no reports of any persons having suffered any knife injuries. the driver of the man was found detained by members of the public at the scene and arrested by police in connection with the incident. he's being taken to hospitals as precaution, they say. and we take them into custody once he's been discharged and he'll also be subject to mental health assessment in due course, they say. they say the police counter terrorism command are in charge of this. they're the one overseeing this and crucially, because this is something that is relevant to the witness accounts you've been hearing, as well. at this early stage of this investigation, no other suspects at the scene have been identified or reported to police, however, the investigation continues. that's important because as we've been saying from the witnesses that we've been

speaking to, people who say they saw these events unfold, many of them say they saw more than one person in that vehicle. two, possibly three in total. those were some of the witness accounts that we've heard this morning. they talk about seeing people run from the scene, according to the police from the statement they have just released, they say at this zaj, they're not aware -- this stage they're not aware of any further suspects nor have they had any further suspects reported to them. one person has died as a result of this event. eight others have been hospitalized, as a result of their injuries. >> all right. phil black reporting live from london near the scene of the incident. if you're just joining us now, this is what we're learning is that one man has indeed been killed in this incident, eight people were injured. the man is age 48. he was found detained by members of the public at the scene and then arrested by police in connection with the incident. this is all the latest information that we're getting.

it's just seconds before 5:00 a.m. it is daybreak in london. most people, perhaps, have not woken up to this news yet and they'll be doing so very shortly, indeed. this is cnn, breaking news. >> and we continue our breaking news coverage of the incident in london. >> i'm rosemary church. a van hit pedestrians in the london. london police say one person has died. at least people are wounded. counter terrorism command is in investigating this incident. two witnesses say they saw three men leave that van. they say police arrested one and the other two fled. police won't say whether they're seeking other suspects at this hour. >> this neighborhood is set to have a large muslim population. the mosques had links to the radical cle radical clericist. worshippers were hit as