other directions and indeed, other terrorist activities. they thought the jig was up. they thought they might be -- this coming on the heels of manchester may also be related to that series of arrests and investigations that mi 5 and scotland yard and others in london have been undertaking with great vigor in recent weeks. >> and that if you will, the poking of the bee hive that you're suggesting, may have brought on more activity. not only in the uk but throughout europe. and that's one of the considerations. michael, i want to bring in a producer for nbc news. i was mentioning this earlier. and he was asked to stay put. he was having a meal close by to these live pictures we're showing you here. mo, you were there. about to, or in the middle of a

meal. tell us what happened, what you hear and saw and what you were told. >> righ >> reporter: right. we were eating near london bridge and then some part of staff came to us and said come to the back of the restaurant. so all the restaurant went to the back. we were crowded away from the windows. and we were on lockdown. and a member of the staff told us that the police were conducting a search of the area and we were not allowed to leave the restaurant. and right now, we are being evacuated. the armed police are now beckoning us out of the restaurant and we're moving in single file in a line out of restaurant and away from the area. >> tell us what you're seeing as you walkful tell us what you're

seeing and smelling, if there's anything of note. >> it is eerily quiet. london bridge area on saturday on, a saturday night, is usually incredibly busy. and it is empty. we've been in the restaurant for 15 minutes, 20 minutes on lockdown. now that we're out, it is absolutely silent. there's no one around. usually there would be crowds of people. the only people moving around freely are police in body armor and guns. >> tell me what you're seeing in terms of law enforcement. their energy, fulfill whether they arer in a rush. i was watching some live pictures to tell you, some that he had strands leaving the area and we see law enforcement standing. what are you seeing in terms of

law enforcement it? seems quite calm and organized. now beckoning all the members, all the customers to another area. now all the customers are running. all of us are running away from the area. there are helicopters up above. so far, it seems organized and calm but we are being taken out very quickly. >> give me a sense of how far that restaurant where you are at is from one of the entrances to the london bridge. >> about a ten-minute walk, less than ten minutes if you walk quickly. >> would that be about four or five blocks? is that what you're saying? >> something like that. probably less. >> probably less. how are pedestrians? how are they reacting? >> there are no pedestrians. just a group of us leaving the restaurant just running down street now.

being beckoned on by armed police. >> did they tell you to run? >> i don't know. everyone else is and i'm quite keen to get away. >> mo, whenever you need to get off the phone, get off the phone and do what you have to do. what is the sense of their energy? are the other restaurantgoers concerned? what did they say to you? what is the reaction? >> good named. we didn't know what was going on. no, everyone is on their phones. i heard people calling relatives just to reassure partners and friends. a lot more concern, actually. a lot quieter. and jogging, running away from the scene. but all in single file, all

together, being directed. >> how many law enforcement vehicles did you see? i know you mentioned you did see personnel. >> you said body articlor and long guns? >> yes. >> any ambulances? >> no. >> choppers? >> just the one that i can tell. >> and this location that you're at, you're saying generally quite busy on a saturday night. >> very busy. 11:00 right now. tell us about that area? >> lots of restaurants, lots of pubs, right on the river. it is an iconic landmark. >> tell me what is the name of the area. >> it is london bridge.

quite a few. there is a mark here which is very popular with artisanal foods. like a farmer's market. fancy, posh food. lots and lots of restaurants. a few offices. >> i want to make sure i have my bearings right here. you're in the northern side, the southern side is what i'm asking? >> we're in the southern side. >> southern side. >> and you set it up quite well. farmer's market, festive, you take a walk 11:00, either right after your meal or what have you. >> yes. a lot of people strolling by the river at this hour. a lot of pubs, restaurants, couples, friends out. just a touristy central london thing to do.

>> and how far are you now from london bridge? it has been about ten minutes. >> we are 15 to 20 minutes away from the bridge. we are moving toward a museum. another land mark here in central london. it seems like we're being directed by the police to a safer area. i'm not entirely sure what else i can tell you. that's all the information that i have. >> i've got you. and i'll let you go after. this are they closing down businesses? clearly the one you were at, they were clearing. now that you're 20 minutes away, are you seeing that they have increased the cordon at all or cleared other businesses? >> it would appear so. bearing in mind that around this hour, a lot of businesses would be closed anyway. london isn't a 24-hour city,

like for example new york. but it does seem a lot quieter. and it seems other places were shut down by the police. >> i'm so glad that you could take a moment amongst of course securing your own the safety. that was about ten minutes away from the southern entrance to london bridge. if you can stand by, mo abbas, he is giving us the details on the ground in london just after 11:00 p.m. lucy cavanagh, also gathering the details as it has happened in the last 20 minutes. and lucy, have you been able to learn anything else? you and i were able to listen to mo, who you know well about, what has happened so far. >> reporter: more disturbing reports in fact saying, not just -- when we spoke earlier, witnesses were saying they saw people with apparent knife wounds. now they're saying they saw what appeared to be throats cut on

london bridge. this is not something we've been able to independently verify but very disturbing news of course, if this is true. also, some reports coming in saying this van, you are asking about which location it was seen at on london bridge. it appears it was driving south from central london, south down the river and one eyewitness said it was going about 50-mile-an-hour. so unclear if there were actually stabbings that took place, where they took place. but what is very clear, this is a terrifying saturday evening for the people down there. and of course, the people of the u.k. this is now the second disturbing incident in two weeks. we don't blank the incident is but no expense spared. a lot of police officers on the streets there as mo abbas was saying. folks being asked to clear the area. folks trying clear the pedestrians away so that he can investigate and figure out what

happened. it does seem this van of course, a white van appeared to have plowed into a crowd of pedestrians and possibly more. but we are working to get you the details. >> and a part of this, as we have unaffordably had to cover such incidents with some regularity here. we get a sense of the indicatca and the way law enforcement reacts to certain incidents. it is unknown specifically as you've been so clear to say, in terms of what has happened. we're just getting reports. and we're working to can you be firm that. based on the helicopter, the pictures you and i been watching. you can see those with shields here about to embark, it appears closer to the location. what might this be telling us based on again, this pace, this process, this cadence, that we're seeing so far in terms of

the number of vehicles. i mentioned the helicopter. the calmness that we're seeing now. what it might be consistent with. and of course, we're not necessarily law enforcement process experts but we've been able to watch incidents like the happen in the recent past. >> that's right. what it is telling us is that law enforcement is taking whatever this incident is very, very seriously. we saw there on the screen moments ago what looked like riot police but they had the shields, helmets, large number of vehicles there. helicopters. they're responding with a full show of force. is this perhaps extra precaution a week after one of the deadliest incidents in the u.k. since 2005? perhaps. it is close to an election. the authorities here don't want to be taken off guard. they certainly want to respond with a full force to whatever the incident might be.

we do see a large number of vehicles, ambulance that's would indicate that there are possibly people who are injured there. so certainly authorities are taking no chance. this is a much more thorough, robust response, if you would, to a small, ordinary incident. it doesn't necessarily mean this was what we all fear it might be. but they are certainly taking no chances based on what you see on the screen. a very full response. >> very good context. as we know what is very notable for the city of london, is the number of closed-circuit television cameras, in tens of thousands. and we don't have the access to them as of this moment. nor may we ever see any of those pieces of video. but law enforcement do have access to that. most likely they are analyzing it with great details.

as we are watching on the left-hand side. >> on that point, the manchester incident, which obviously took place quite recently, authorities had 13,000 hours worth of cctb footage to comb through in their investigation. 13,000. 12,000 something. but about 13,000 hours. so you can imagine the large number of data that they'll to have comb through on try to piece together exactly what happened. in the manchester incident, a lot of the ways we were getting updates on the investigation were through leaks. this was a very controversial thing. the way the investigations, once something happens, the local police force is the lead investigative team on the grounds. they then share the information with the counter terrorism nationwide force which then shares with it allies. the u.s. is one of they will. that's how we were able to -- go ahead. >> exactly.

they're going to go through a very strategic timing of the way they go through the, both the analysis, as well as the release of the learnings that may come from all of this data. lucy cavanagh, thank you so much. i know that you'll be busy on "nbc nightly news." i want to bring in one of your colleagues. matt bradley. nbc correspondent who is on the scene right now. what are you learning? >> well, what we're seeing right now is just an enormous scrum of ambulances and police cars that have flooded london bridge. the whole area has been shut off. the train stations around it have been shut off. and there are people wandering around. i'm not allowed to get any closer but i have a good view of the bridge. and the people i've spoken to here have said that none of them saw the incident itself. but they did see bodies lying on the ground and they were told by police to simply run as fast as

possible. and the enormous amount of resources that have been put in place, that have been mobilized with such speed, goes to speak to how this whole city is on tenter hooks. it was only a couple weeks ago this manchester event occurred. and when 22 people were killed, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an arihanna grande concert. the thing that distinguishes it from what would be a normal car accident, is that there is talk of somebody stabbing people outside of a restaurant here right by london bridge. right in the city of london. right in the heart of financial district. this is what makes it an intense scene. causing all the speculation that it might be terror. we don't know anything yet. it is important, we have no information. the police are not offering information and the police have

not described this as a terrorist incident and there's no reason to believe pits, until now. but it is a very tense situation. an enormous amount of police resources to address this saturday night right in the heart of london. >> no talk of terrorism. nbc news not confirming these reports as of yet but coming from reputable sources about the incident so far. the van, the stabbings, as well as the bodies you were mentioning. can you tell us if you're on the northern end or the southern end? and can you tell us what you're seeing in terms of law enforcement? if there are any pedestrians at the moment? >> reporter: yes. i'm at the northern end of the bridge. i'm in the heart of city of london. right by monday uument station. it is just on the northern part of bridge. so right now i'm standing amongst a ton of pedestrians who

are looking at this and trying to figure out what's going on. like i said, what there is to see is just a huge amount of flashing lights, sirens, police, and they're all blocking us from going anywhere. but there are quite a few people. in what was so much traffic in the very heart of london. that's what makes this such an escalated incident. what adds to the tension. this isn't in some far away suburb. westminster attacked a couple months ago when a man went high speed and killed four or five people and then got out of the car and stabbed to death, or beat to death a police officer who was guarding the parliament building. so that's why so much of this city is on tenter hooks. and then manchester incident where 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber. this city and throughout europe,

they're just waiting for the next foot drop when it comes to terrorism. but it needs to be said, we don't know. the police have been careful not to describe it as such. >> your colleague, my colleague, by a fellow bureau i'd. it was on the southern end. our video has been showing a lot of vehicle activity as well as law enforcement suiting up. they had shields. it was unclear but heavy armor in terms of what they're wearing. do you see a lot of vehicles? a lot of urgency? >> caller: yes. right now, i'm actually seeing a group of police officers running toward an ambulance. that's causing a lot of crowd to perk up and pay attention. there are quite a number of police officers. there are dozens of police officers, medical personnel. and i think they're probably

concentrated because my colleague mo abbas is on the southern side of the bridge. they're concentrated on the northern side where i am. that's why you can clearly see the amount of police attention this has gotten. i cannot see any bodies, any casualties or anything like that. and i really can't even see the white van in question. because it is surrounded by other emergency vehicles that have flooded this scene in the last half-hour. so i have a very clear view of an incident that looks like very escalated, very dangerous incident but i can't see any vehicles that were involved in the original incident. and i spoke to some people here and they said they were walking around just on a normal saturday night in love. and they were told to run as fast as they could from the incident. that shows how high stress this city is when it comes to

suspected incidents of terror. >> can you give us some context? we're just getting this in from the metropolitan police. burro market. what is the location like sf. >> well, this whole area is right in the heart of not the tourist part of london. not the part that you go visit and see the parliament building and westminster abby. this is the financial part. the northern part where i'm sitting now is the in the city of london. the square mile that houses what would you consider the wall street of london. so this area on the other side of the bridge, the tallest building in london, it is called the shard. that's standing vigil over all of this fracas right now. at the central is burrough

market, fancy eateries and food stalls that is very popular with office workers. and there are a lot of office workers. in this neighbor, it is a little like wall street in new york. on a saturday night. you won't have that many people around. it is a working place. it is not a place for tourists and partygoers on a saturday night. it is really just for office workers. so that area, burrough market right at the base of the shard, and right near a lot of other office buildings, the police will be swarming that area, too. it is a dense warren of eateries and places like that. it would be a perfect place, if you were a fugitive, it would be the perfect place to get lost in and escape. it is mostly a lunch area. so that i think the police are probably the just doing, closing down that area. out of an abundance of caution. if they are closing it down, it

might mean they haven't caught the suspect or they're suspecting there is another suspect, another accomplice who would be on foot. >> nbc's matt bradley on the scene, on the northern side of london bridge which is closed down. thank you for standing by. to get you up to date in terms of what we're watching. matt giving us what he is seeing live on the seasonable. also, we have reports from our mo abbas with our london bureau. the activity is still ongoing. just starting our coverage in the last 30, 35 minutes. what we know at the moment. we can confirm not all the details. we're only getting reporting from reputable sources about what has happened at london bridge. it is 11:00 a saturday evening. closing both directions of traffic on london bridge. if you've been there, you

understand on a saturday night, in the start of the summer. it would be quite busy. places to eat and to walk and to talk with family and friends. the report, a white van involved. we've had reporting coming in reuters and others as well as bodies being seen on the bridge it sell. we're also just getting in a picture of what is believed to be the vehicle in question allegedly that has hit several pedestrians. i don't know if we have that picture that we can pull up. the van supposedly associated with this. this is the picture that we have right now. and i'm not sure what we have in this. it looks like a location close to what might be the incidents.

i need to bring in the military analyst. you've heard all the details, and again, it is very early in this incident. have you been able to piece together some of the key questions that we need to be asking right now? >> reporter: sure. we don't know what transpired other than the reports that have just come in. the fact is we just saw a very high profile tax take place in manchester. we just saw that terrorist groups have been calling for activities during the ramadan season which is happening right now. we know that the elections coming up and we know this is a high profile soft target. the london bridge, one of the most famous bridges in london if not the world. so those factors would suggest that this wasn't some random accident or a drunk driver. those factors would suggest there was an intent to do this. too early to say for sure from the initial reports. we don't who know is behind it

or what the motivation may be. but there is an ongoing investigation related to manchester. sometimes people feel they're under pressure from law enforcement. others might feel that law enforcement is closing in on they will. this is speculation. and then they act as they start getting closer to individuals. we don't know if there's any connection to manchester. but sometimes when there is a lot, they might think they're going to get caught. you have cases of copycat. the group that was behind the manchester attack but was inspired by it based on seeing that attack happen recently in the u.k. and you have under fortunately, the huge manchester concert happening tomorrow. another big high profile event.

also now, is terrorism going to be shaking once again by this horrific and tragic event. at the end of the day, whether this was an orchestrated attack, a copycat, it shows you the problem that law enforcement has on their hands. it doesn't matter. the implication, it is what is driving it behind the scenes in terms of the tragic loss of life. having said that. i don't believe there have been any claims. at least not yet bust i think we'll know a lot more in the next 24 hours. >> and part of this, the election happening on june 8. and unfortunately, we've seen these coralations in advance. >> i've been watching this right

now. on the phone. >> tell me what you're seeing. because a second ago, we saw another van arrive. more law enforcement. they're getting shields on. as a military analyst, the reaction will help us understand what the scope of the potential threat, the alleged threat might be. >> well, a few things. number one, and we saw it after manchester. the first concern is, i don't know in this case, the individual who carried this out, if it was an attack. i don't know if the suspect alive or dead. presumably if that person is alive, they need on pre sprenlt individual from doing another form of attack. they need to make sure there are no accomplices who are part of the attack or fleeing. also to get information. london has a very high concentration of security cameras, it is a major metropolitan area, particularly

around areas that could be potential targets. cruise missiles people's iphones. so if there was a vehicle used, tracing that vehicle to see who it belongs to. again, the key concern is making sure there's nothing else going on related to this. if the individual who carried this out is still alive, that he or she cannot cause more harm. had those are the priorities. then they'll get into the friendsics and seizing laptops. and making sure this individual wasn't part of a larger cell. if this was an attack. we don't know this yet. given the location of it and the timing, it seems unlikely that this could have been an accident. >> one of the things, we just got that piece of information in the last five minutes.

burrough market is being cordoned. this is where we had reporting from mo abbas, an nbc producer, that the streets were quiet. they had a helicopter above. he was running through that area of burrough market to get away from the restaurant that he was at. so we have london bridge which was closed, and this picture here that we just put up. it would be in the lower left hand part of the screen. in terms of where borough market is close to. on the southern end of london bridge. matt bradley, nbc correspondent reporting on the northern end said yes, i know borough market. that would be a great place if you were to be a fugitive to try to disappear. we don't have any reporting that necessarily says there is a suspect that is in that area. but they have just recently, the metropolitan police within the last ten minutes, has said.

we're closing, cordoning this borough market area. if you're watching on the map. which is very close to london bridge. are you able to surmise anything from that? >> reporter: there could be a number of explanations for that. i don't want to get too much into it. it could be, it is all just speculation. it could be that potentially, witnesses saw somebody fleeing in that direction. it could be there are concerns about something happening. in area. it could be that it is a difficult area to monitor or perhaps see into so she wanted to clear it out in case anybody else was fleeing the scene. it is too early to say. it is not unusual in these cases when it is a round of particular target for areas in the surrounding area to be cleared out. it could be for law enforcement to have areas to be set up. so again, really no information. lots of reasons that could be the case. not unusual. we saw it during a number of attacks in europe with evacuations.

or making people stay in place and not be able to leave. saying we don't have people running in the streets in the midst of all this while police are trying to operate. >> we can safely say this is an active scene and they are still in process. and the closing and cordoning of borough market is part of that. i want to bring in ned price, former special assistant to president obama as well as president obama's nsc spokesperson and senior director. ned, what have you been able to glean based on the information that we have been able to get from other sources that this, we have a white van potentially. we have individuals hit by this white van potentially. also, reported were stabbings, also, bodies being seen on london bridge. nbc news has not been able to confirm that.

we are in this very early stage of knowing less than knowing more. >> i think you're right. we do know less than we know more at this point. and i would echo the caution that others have said, that we shouldn't rush to judgment. obviously this has the look and the hall marks of a terrorist attack. but i think westerly the very scary incident we saw just a few days ago in times square. where a car seemed to ploul over a sidewalk and it turned out -- i'm not saying that's the most likely explanation in this case. but investigators are going to come through at all possibilities in this case. obviously, if there are reports of stabbings, even gunshots and possibly a second crime scene like you're discussing is accurate, that would make this much more likely to be a terrorist attack than anything else. but that is the approach that the mayor and that public officials are taking behind the

scenes. security officials are going to assume, out of an abundance of caution, that this was a terrorist attack. they're going to do that because they're going to comb through any and all pieces of information they may have collected in recent days and weeks. in the wake of manchester, or after the westminster attack in march. to see if there is anything that would shed light what happened this evening in london. and to see if there is anything would suggest this could be part of the coordinated attack. that's always the worst fear of officials. when i was with the craft, that was a going assumption. there was never any such thing as an isolated attack. we should treat had as a campaign or potential campaign that could have certainly significant implications going forward. >> sean spicer, white house press secretary, also tweeting out moments ago that president

trump has been briefed, saying this, national security team has briefed potus on situation at london bridge and will continue on provide updates. when you have been through these situations before with president obama as special assistant to him as well as nsc spokesperson and senior director, what is that process? what might be the next steps that a white house typically might do in this situation to support a key ally? >> reporter: i suspect the counter terrorism adviser, tom bossert, is leading on this. he is in close coordination, i would imagine, with the cia direct o', the director of the fbi, in case there are any linkages to the u.s. homeland. of course the department of homeland security and other relevant departments and agencies within the national security realm. the president, certainly president obama, would want to get regular updates on what his

team knew. now, obviously information comes in pretty quickly and furiously at times like this. the first reports are often incorrect. so you have to be very careful about what you brief the president and you have to be even more careful and get even more scrutiny for what is said publicly. given that much of this information is likely to change over time, the white house is very cautious against speaking. and i believe at this point, they've referred to it as a security incident on london bridge and left it at that until they know more. >> we're also hearing that prime minister theresa may, according to the associated press, has been updated on this. on the london bridge incident. and that she is aware and taking appropriate action. reuters saying that armed police have responded to two incidents there in central london. that the british armed police have not only responded to an

incident in the borough market area of london, which we were the just remarking on, but also, nearby, also on london bridge in addition to that. and that there were casualties after the incident that possibly involved a van and knife injuries. again, two incidents in central london. borough market and london bridge. according to reuters. borough market on the map there. you can see in the lower left-hand side of the screen. i want to add more information coming in to us from a discussion that we at nbc news had with holly jones, who is a bbc reporter, who is on the bridge earlier. and i will just read some paraphrased notes coming from holly jones from the bbc in terms of what she told us. she said a man was arrested, shirt off. that he's been handcuffed. that he's in a police car. and this is from earlier, just within about the last hour. that holly saying she did not

who know that person was. she said that she was walking. on the north side. a white transit van, male driver about, 50 miles an hour, according to what she said, turned into the pavement, hit several pedestrian that's were in front of her. hit some people behind her. she said that they were french in terms of, i believe she is alluding to the victims here. the victim on the ground said she doesn't know where her boyfriend is. and then again, this bbc reporter told us here at nbc, that probably about six victims, is what she saw on the ground. the white van specifically, after that description she gave us, she said she didn't know where the white van was. so i guess out of her vision line. she also said, it zig zagged across the bridge. then she saw about eight ambulances, lots of law enforcement with guns, and she

was describing what she said was basically chaos. and then the police moved everyone off the bridge. buses also coming to get them. we saw some of those buses earlier in these pictures. you're looking at live pictures on your screen at an area close to it. on the right-hand side, we believe this to be the alleged van in question that we've been talking about. doors open in the front and the rear. the exact location of this van, unknown. we believe this to be the picture of the van. indescript, the writing on the side of it. it looks to be some sort of industrial van. white in color, not necessarily a small size van. medium to large with prominent writing on the side. a logo. all doors open. and you can see some people moving around that van.

also, law enforcement vehicles close by. and it could be that this van veered off and then stopped close to the signal. a street signal that is on its left hand side. but again, this picture just coming in to us with the picture of what we believe to be the van in question. all right. lots of details coming in. getting this to you as we get on it msnbc. let's to go lucy cavanagh who is in our london bureau. and this picture we're just getting in here, lucy, do we know what the location of this van is? because a lot of details have been coming in within the last ten minutes. >> i cannot tell you exactly where that van was based on that photograph. obviously, it looks like busy crosswalk, an intersection.

we do know that the second location where police have not responded to it. the first is london bridge. we presume this man is somewhere near there. perhaps what we heard as we were driving from north london to south london. this is south bank of the thames river. as i bustling area full of different shops, people go there. at night, the shops themselves are closed but there are lots of little cafes and pubs so this would have been a very, very busy area. we don't know if there was a suspect police had seen coming out of this van. if he or she, if a person were to run somewhere, that would be a good place to, for example, go. if you want to get lost into a crowd. i should admit, complete conjecture at this point. all we know at this stage is

that this incident took place. there are a number of people injured. we don't know how much. and theresa may, the prime minister, is being kept up to date. police are calling this incidents, plural. on london bridge and atborough market. >> the information we're getting from reuters and others, is that there are two incidents from central london on the screen you see here. the van they believe to be associated with at least one of those incidents on london bridge. the other location that lucy is alluding to is at borough market, which she gave us details on. borough market, that lower left dot you see there. i'm guessing that walk. because mo abbas who is an nbc

news producer, was close tom area, if not walking through that area. his reporting from 20 minutes ago, that market area, again, what? about ten minutes? is that right? >> reporter: i would say less than ten minutes, yeah. it is very, very close. all of this is basically connected as a pedestrian area. borough market spreads out a few minutes from there. and again, it would have been incredibly busy on a crowded saturday night. this incident taking place at about 10:53 p.m. local time. exactly when people would be out and about in the streets. perhaps eating at different restaurants, like our producer mo abbas was. perhaps visiting the pubs there. this is definitely a busy location. one where a lot of folks would have been affected. police are trying to clear the area. they're trying to warn folks from staying away from there. we know that people were getting moved from the surrounding locations as they try to

investigate. very worrying, the reports about the number of injured people coming out. potential knife injuries. again, this is not something we've been able to independently verify. we have seen video after video of ambulance rushing to the scene. sirens blazing. which would indicate that there is something they're responding to quite frankly. >> we were reporting earlier are, sean spicer tweeted out earlier the president had been made aware of what has happened. are you hearing anything more there? >> well, i've been talking on senior white house officials and this is how things would unfold when it comes to a situation where details are being gathered. where there's some urgent incident. we know president trump who is here at the white house, he had been out and about earlier in the day, visiting one of his golf resorts. for the last few hours he's been here at the white house. advisers tell me he was briefed

by his national security team, led by l. mcmaster, the national security adviser. and they will continue to keep tabs on what's happening. inside the white house is the situation room, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. the personnel can see all the feeds we're wooching television but all the private communications between partner nations and getting as much intel as they can connecting the pentagon, the cia, partners across europe. so there's this hub of activity where they can gather information. obviously, this is so early in the incident. so they want to tread carefully in how they describe it. what they're able to tell us is the president is in the loop on this and the briefings will continue through the evening. it is notable in just the timing of this particular incident and the president's personal connection to prime minister theresa may. the president's overseas trip,

he spent some time with the prime minister. met in person a few different times. there were some tensions over what he had happened after the manchester incident where law enforcement was believed to have leaked some information provided by u.k. intelligence. that created a potential rift. theresa may made a point of saying they would raise that with president trump. and then they were able to be on the same page when it comes to terrorism, sharing of intelligence information, so this comes at a time when this is a new relationship between the president and the prime minister. there have been some rough spots but there's no greater ally to the united states than the united kingdom. so this is a time the united states would provide as much intelligence and resources as possible. that would be the customary approach. that's what we expect will happen. in terms of speaking to prime minister may, in talking to

advisers, they could not provide any details on when and how that would happen. obviously there's so much unfolding but, too, would be something we would expect. to offer reinsurance, to provide resources and simply to connect. expect all of that to unfold in the hours ahead. especially as we learn more details about what may be involved here. so the president also needs to be careful to not say too much too soon. we don't know the cause here west don't know the motives. we don't know what time of incident this is. criminal, terrorist, or something else. so moving carefully. this is something where the president, when it comes to these sorts of incidents that cause so much harm, fear, danger a, to first responders, as well as the individuals, the everyday citizens who can be affected by this, president trump has been trying to project himself as a very strong voice on the world

stage against incidents of terror. and so expecting to speak on this at some point. of course, richard, as these developments unfold, presidents can never know when outside events will weigh in. the president had planned to turn on domestic issues next week, on infrastructure, so forth, we don't know yet what impact one of our close he will allies having an incident like this, after a confirmed terrorist attack in manchester. this could change things in terms of the trump agenda. so we have to watch, wait and monitor. the president is aware. and his team is keeping tabs with partners in the united kingdom to keep him in the loop and to keep the lines of communication open. >> a top pick president trump has always honed in on in his will messaging as he has looked around the world. kelly o'donnell can he white house. thank you. so. we have a third location that we're hearing from metropolitan police.

the first location was london bridge. the second was burrough margaret. third, we're just hearing at this hour, 47 minutes, after the hour, it is vox hall. the area of vox hall. lucy kafanov with us, we have a third location. what can you tell us about that area? >> that's right. this is an area where there's a lot of office buildings. a mixed use area in just basically south of the thames river. not too far from where these incidents were taking place. i have some new information in regard to the london bridge incident. we know that police have confirmed that they're treating injured people on a very small side street before the 500 meters southwest of london bridge. european security official told reuters that it was too soon to say, basically, what this was of

course. it is quite obvious that it is too soon to say what it was. the british authorities are not revealing what it is. what british transport police are saying is that there are reports of multiple casualties now. multiple casualties. following what they're describing as major incident. but as you report now, it appears to be three different incidents. vox hall, london bridge, and borough margaret, which is very close to london bridge. >> thank you so much. watching those three areas. and if you're just joining us at the quarter hour, just to get you up to date. the information has been changing. we've been on this for about an hour now. breaking news coming out of london. and this as there are three or rather, three incident areas in london. downtown london, london bridge, borough margareket, on the sout end, and then a third area. we also have vox hall.

and that is just coming in to us within the last had few minutes. at issue here, what is in question is a white van that may have hit several there have been reports also of bodies being seen on london bridge, also of stabbings. we have already heard there has been an incident in borough market specific to a suspect. again, all of these pieces of information coming from different reputable sources. however, we have not confirmed yet here at nbc news the details behind any of these reports. and as is typical of an incident like this, only an hour in, there are more items in question that are items of certainty. but we continue to get reports from those who are on the ground. mo abbas, our nbc brother, was on the northern end.

we have lucy kafanov at the london bureau, and of course the reports coming in. we're getting the latest, video we've been showing you. you can get a sense of some of the urgency here just from this last shot that's coming in to us live. earlier we saw some law enforcement in this very picture here, assisting an individual or two. we were unsure of who those individuals are. in terms of those individuals that law enforcement may be dealing with, we have a bbc reporter who told us here at nbc news that there was a man taken into custody with his shirt off, that he had been handcuffed and was in a police car. we do not know any more details other than what the bbc reporter has been telling us. in these pictures that you see here that are live, we've also been able to get a sense of the activity. and it's been fairly consistent in the last hour. you can see this law enforcement standing on a corner behind a

wall. they have been equipped with shields. they have had body armor. some have been moving slowly. some have been running. we've also seen ambulances and law enforcement vehicles, as you see here. mostly vans coming to and fro. some of this video, we saw it pan up earlier, it looked to be the shard, very large tower that's on the southern end of london bridge. so it could be that these pictures are on the southern end, which has been the location of at least borough market, that location number two that has been cordoned off. so that is basically what we know. then finally what we know at this quarter hour, if we can bring up that picture of the van that we believe to be in question, that alleged van white in color. this is it here. and this is the full picture that we have. looks to be taken through some sort of window. we can see that all the doors are open.

the lights are still on, on this van. pulled over to the side. up against, it appears to be, a signal. whether it crashed into that, sliding into it, or it drove off the road, we don't know, because we just have the static shot. but you can see law enforcement in the lower right hand side. you can see individuals walking by, two by the rear doors. it looks like there's one or two, a bicycle on the left. but all the doors open on this medium-sized van that we believe is the alleged van in question. white, looks to be some sort of industrial van because of the markings on it. it had writing on the left hand side as well as a logo. back to these live pictures on your left hand side, and you can see the number of personnel that are onsite. this is the metropolitan police. they are very prepared to undertake such incidents. we do not have any confirmed use of the word "terror" related to

this as of yet. there's no confirmed use of that word associated with this incident, because we're so early on, and so much information still needs to be put together. but we do have three incidents. that third location just added to the discussion within the last ten minutes. so that tells us, if you're just joining us, we're in the middle of a very active situation. and we could have more locations that go into lockdown or in cordon or in question as we move on with our breaking news coverage coming out of london. it could be that we stay at this number. but we'll continue to stay on top of the details. i want to bring in mustafa tamiz, former consultant to the department of homeland security. mustafa, are we still in a very active if not expanding incident at the moment? >> yes, we are at the very early stages.

but it's very characteristic of what happened on westminster bridge. we saw a vehicle that rammed people, then you saw a stabbing attack. these incidents are very similar. the reason why we don't jump to conclusions is we don't have to put misinformation out there. all of us hesitate to make connections that might not exist and put out information that later on we all regret. >> and if we stay in that area of being careful about what we're about to say and what we surmise from what's happened so far, when you're watching the pictures, when you've heard the information coming from the metropolitan police, and they just tweeting this out in the last five or ten minutes, in terms of a tick-tock here, mustafa, they're saying specifically in terms of information available to them, they're being careful about this too of course, they're saying

about 10:08 p.m., that officers responded to reports of a vehicle that was in collision with pedestrians on london bridge. that's location number one. then they go to location number two. officers then responded to reports of stabbings in borough market, five or ten minutes from london bridge. armed officers responding, shots fired. that's location number two. then location number three, 10:45 p.m., officers now responding to an incident in the vauxhall area. so that's only about ten minutes ago. based on this timeline, what are you taking away from it? >> this is, again, reminiscent of what happened to westminster. we saw a vehicle that plowed people on the bridge. then you saw an assailant that left that vehicle and stabbed people, and then was shot by police. and back then, in march, it was a wednesday evening, four people were killed, including the

assailant, a guy named khalid masood. ever since nice we've seen attacks like this, everyday vehicles used as weapons of mass carnage. it alarms americans and westerners and all of us around the world, because it reminds us of how vulnerable we are in many of these soft targets. >> when you look at what might be the next steps for metropolitan police, mi-5, whoever my be brought in, brought to bear here, given the large number of resources they have there available in london, what do you think they're doing, going through at the moment in terms of the next steps? >> well, the first thing, as you see, the visible police firstor

all agencies to secure the perimeter. you also saw in the earlier footage, they were pushing back reporters, pushing back civilians from a tthe area. so they're cordoning it off. you heard reports of people on the back of police vehicles. so they may even potentially have suspects at this end. so right now, what you're going to see the police basically, you know, seal the areas off, get control of the situation. and once they have that, they'll begin to make a public statement as to what they know. >> so just to give folks a sense of this third location that we learned of in the last ten minutes here, mustafa, and i've not been to the vauxhall area, borough market, london bridge, yes, and as we look at the distance, borough market, london bridge, as we look at the map we

have onscreen now, they're very close to each other. the third location, if this map we're on went down about oh, another -- depending on the size of your screen, about five or six times the distance you see here, it's in the lower, lower, lower left hand -- basically a southwest trajectory you would have to go to get to vauxhall, it seems quite far. but the question we would ask is, this third location is not close to the first two. >> it could be that if -- again, it's early, but it could be if they had someone in custody, they would be looking at that person, they would be questioning that individually on the spot, and may have uncovered more information. we saw in past terrorist events when they've occurred in london, is that uk has a very strong list, a number of people that they have under observation. so if they were able to capture

one or identify one person, they may begin to go after a network of people. and so this early stage -- and the other thing you could see is they may just be chasing someone. >> just as i just mapped it at this hour before the cordons, you know, within the timeline the metropolitan police gave to us, it is certainly within that time frame to drive at legal speeds to get from that location number two to location number three, mustafa. >> yeah. and that's a strong possibility. and the fact that we don't have coming out making a statement tells us this is an active situation, that they have not tamped it down completely yet. and they're still not just investigati investigating, but they mabe