this is still a very active scene. >> fred pleitgen, thank you. we have just learned that the president of the united states has been briefed on this incident and is aware that there's an incident that police are responding to on london bridge. a lot of police presence there. there's an incident that london police have said that they are responding to in the borough market. eyewitnesss tell us that there was a stabbing inside a restaurant. we have new pictures, images coming from inside that restaurant talk taken by eyewitnesss. let's get a look at that. you can see here people on the ground. we heard from an eyewitness inside that restaurant that there were two people at least who were stabbed and that the rest of the people inside that restaurant huddled to try to stay safe. again, the metropolitan police tweeting, as well as london bridge officers have responded to an incident in borough market. fred pleitgen reported hearing loud bangs and an eyewitness said that a van came over the london bridge plowing into several people. he also reported h

let's bring in our cnn international correspondent fred pleitgen. the police say they believe there were three assailants, they've all been killed by authorities. technically no, one on the loose, no one left. >> well, technically no one on the loose. but the question of course now is is there some sort of larger network behind all this. and of course in the early stages when the police wasn't sure whether or not there might still be people on the loose they were literally going house to house in a lot of these streets and you could hear all these bangs going off in the neighborhood right around london bridge. we're not exactly sure what that was, whether it was some sort of controlled explosions or some sort of diversion devices or something that they set off. there was a big not manhunt but almost a dragnet going on where they were looking for people. and now i guess the big question is going to be is there a larger network behind all of this? so are there possibly still people somewhere on the loose that might have had something to do with logist

fred pleitgen is joining us now. you arrived on the scene not long after the incident occurred.t heard from the police there. they believe this attack is now overall though they are not ruling anything out and they are continuing their investigation. >> reporter: yeah. that's certainly what we're seeing on the ground here as well. i think you can see those blue lights flashing behind me. those are all still police vehicles going in and out here very close to the scene of where the initial attack there on london bridge took place. you can see that this investigation is still going on. we can see a lot of police officers, some of them quite heavily armed, roaming around the streets here close to where we are simply still checking on places, seeing if there's anything suspicious going on and really in the early stages after this attack took place. i was here about half an hour, maybe a little more after it took place. you could see that the police at that point in time did not know how big this attack was in scale and scope. so they were really trying to evacuate all of the people

cnn's fred pleitgen monitoring events from london. you spent a lot of time in iran.icant? >> reporter: they are significant for many reasons. first of all on one hand these attacks, something like this rarely happens in at tt tehran. it's almost unprecedented. this sophistication to take place in iran and especially in tehran. they appear to be coordinated. the two sites hit the shrine of the ayatollah khomeini who was the founder of the republic of iran and the parliament building are important sites. these attacks are very sophisticated. there's ak-47s as well as suicide bombers. two people blew themselves up at the shrine and one person inside the parliament. apparently there's still a hostage situation going on at the parliament building. security forces are trying to deal with that. isis came out and claimed responsibility. they haven't offered any evidence. iranians in the past couple of months have been saying that they foiled several plots with people trying to smuggle weapons into the country. this time they've not managed to do that. so this attack is ongoi

let's get to fred pleitgen in london. borne this white male who launched an attack on this innocent muslims, was he on anybody's radar screen? >> reporter: it doesn't appear that he was, jake, but the police really seem as though it's anti-muslim terrorism that took place here. they are not aware of this man having been on any sort of security ray dadar, and what the trying to find out is if he acted alone or if he had someone who helped him at least logistilogisti logistical logistically. here's how the attack unfolded. just after midnight, as worshippers of one of london's mosques filled the streets, a man went driving through the crowd. >> this is not something i thought i would see in the 21st century. >> a man was driving very high speed. he just ran over the people. >> reporter: one man died, but it's unclear if this was as a result of the attack. when police arrived, the suspect, a 47-year-old man, had been detained by shocked members of the muslim community. in an extraordinary intervention, the local imam protecte

fred pleitgen has been following this disaster.he death toll could still rise. >> yeah, it certainly could still rise, george. one of the things that we heard yesterday about the death toll is that it was the 30 people who were already confirmed dead and on top of that, they had 18 that they said were still missing and -- or 28, i should say, who were still missing and they think that those people are -- there's no hope of finding them alive any more because the tower was so badly damaged in that fire. i want to show you where i am right now, george. we're at the nottingham methodist church. you were talking just a second ago about that moment of silence that's going to be observed on monday. at 11:00 a.m. local time here, there will away memory yol service at this church that is going to take place. this is one of the places where people lay down flowers, pay their respects, as well. as you can see here, many people have done that. there is growing anger but at the same time, this is a community that's very much in grief. i can te

let's go live to fred pleitgen.n back the clock and remind folks what began this public twitter feud. that's when the first muslim mayor of a major western capital was very clear about his message. how did the president misinterpret that? >> i think one of the things that happened is that after the terror attack, he said, look, this terror attack is taking place. we're dealing with it. what you're going to see is more police presence so we're sure that we can keep the public safety. don't be alarmed by seeing police officers in the streets. what president trump took that to mean is that he was saying there's no reason to be alarmed by terror. that was obviously not the message that he was trying to send. that's something he made clear. it was interesting that originally he said i simply don't have time to deal with the tweets of the u.s. president at this point in time because we're dealing with the major terror investigation. but now he's come out and said, look, he doesn't believe that the uk should be rolling out

senior international correspondent fred pleitgen joining us live in london. red. let me get this straight. the world's biggest pollutor is now the leader on environmental issues? is that where we stand potentially at 3:00 this afternoon? >> potentially, or it seems as though they're trying to become one of the leaders in combating climate change or at least in combating climate change policy, along with the european union. it been so interesting to see early this morning in europe how china is really laying on the full court press here in europe. you have the chinese prime minister meeting with angela merkel where she said she thought it was "joyous" china was so committed in combating climate change. later today the chinese prime minister is going to the european union where new fishtifish initiatives are going to be announced, the eu and china announcing they want to start a technical partnership to increase their capabilities in fostering industries that combat climate change, also for urban development as well. then you have the leader of the european unio

. >> fred pleitgen in london for us where this attack began to unfold and now going on almost six hours. fred pleitgen, stand by. >>> breaking news here at cnn, we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm ana cabrera. >> and i'm john berman. new developments just in. r london police just confirmed six people are dead and three attackers also killed following what was one terrorist incident, one long terrorist incident that began on a bridge and ended in a restaurant. this is what we know. first, police say a van, we just got our first pictures of it, ran down pedestrians on london bridge. one witness described the vehicle tossing some person some 20 feet in the air. it appears as though the van was purposely aiming for pedestrians and then afterwards people were laying on the ground not moving. that was followed by the stabbing attack at borough market, a restaurant south of the bridge. >> images from this scene of what could be two of the assailants on the ground, one clearly wearing some sort of vest. british prime minister theresa may is convening he

cnn correspondent fred pleitgen is near a cordoned off area.t heard some loud bangs. >> reporter: yeah, exactly, j n john. two loud bangs we heard i would say maybe ten minutes ago. unclear what exactly it was, a controlled explosion or even a stun grenade. one of the other things we also saw was a lot of police officers, armed police officers, with automatic weapons sort of sweeping through the streets i'd say about 80 yards away from where we are. we're going to step out of the way. you see the edge of the cordon from here. there's a lot of police cars still there, 70 to 80 yards from london bridge where the original incident took place. this is the main sort of -- the entry point for the police vehicles into that area and we've been seeing a lot of activity down that road, a lot of the police officers, as i say, with machine guns sweeping through the streets. earlier when we were here this was the main place where people were actually running out of the area. you could see people who were being brought by the police, told to run as fast as t

fred pleitgen is heading to the scene right now.are you and describe what you're seeing. >> well, right now i'm in traffic on the way to that area. traffic isn't too bad where we are but as we look at these pictures where there is a vehicle involved, that's one of the things that really the police here have been looking out for a lot, especially since there was an incident here in london where a man, also apparently terror related, ran into a pedestrian on one of the most iconic bridges. that was one of the big terror attacks that took place in london where a man went on a sidewalk and they n used a knif. that's certainly one of the things that the police have been looking out for so much. it's really a pattern that we've been seeing all around here. and i was actually at the christmas market as well and a van ran into a pedestrian zone around the shopping area. so that's certainly one of the patterns and judging by those early pictures, that seems to be a possibility and certainly one of the things that the police seem to be reacti

our senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is in london. is there any doubt at all, this attack being outside a busy mosque, this was somebody targeting muslims? >> reporter: no. it doesn't seem as though in the eyes of the authorities there's any doubt. actually, in the past couple minutes, while we were on air, the police have come out with a new statement, saying this 47-year-old man has now or is now being investigated for terrorism-related offenses. this is now officially an investigation for terrorism that is going on here. it's interesting because there's actually an address in wales that's being searched because the van he used for all this was rented in wales. the police are now searching that as well. of course, this is something that has deeply shaken the muslim community but of course, all of london, after we have seen a spate of terror attacks and the large fire over the past couple weeks. the mayor paid tribute to that when he went in front of the press earlier today. let's listen. >> there will be a zero tolerance towards hat

cnn's fred pleitgen is in london a. rare this eng to see, two very close allies so publicly feuding after such a terrible event. >> reporter: yeah. you know, christine, i think that's one of the things that disappoints a lot of people here in london and, quite frankly, in britain. they say, we are in the aftermath of a gigantic investigation going on. they are trying to come to terms with who is behind this attack. they have identified most of them. at the same time, there is forensic work going on. then to have something like this come up is really something i think that angers a lot of brits and people in london. you we heard there from the mayor of london saying that he believes that the red carpet shouldn't be rolled out for president trump, because he believes that president trump is saying a lot of things that he thinks aren't correct about london and the investigation that's been going on. the other thing, however that the mayor's office hassals said, they said, look, sadiq khan at this point in time simply has b

. >> fred pleitgen, thank you for reporting. stay with us. i want to go to the pentagon. barbara starr is joining us. were you in a briefing getting more information. what are you hearing? >> reporter: poppy, we do now have a very significant update from the pentagon. the pentagon spokesman captain jeff davis concluding an off-camera briefing a short time ago. he's told reporters here this morning, they've been looking at intelligence over the last few days at this air base that they had struck back in april, that they believe that chemical attack was organized and perpetrated from and began to see some activity there regarding the chemical weapons stored at that air base, but in the last 24 hours, that intelligence, that information became more compelling, and became suggestive, according to the pentagon, that the syrians were planning an attack. the intelligence is focusing on one particular aircraft shelter at that base, an aircraft that is there and chemical weapons substances that are there. now, he wouldn't go so far as to say whether the chemical weapons have been

senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is at the scene. fred, i understand you are joined by an eyewitness as well. >> reporter: hi, ana. i'm joined by neal tate. you were in the area here tonight. tell me what you saw. >> i guess the main thing i saw is two, maybe three guys being arrested, very heavy police presence. i found myself trapped in an alleyway trying to get to borough high street and found myself right in the middle of an arrest situation. it was like two guys -- i would have said did he haefinitely tw maybe three pushed up against the shop front. >> reporter: by police officers? >> by police, yeah. by what i could see they weren't armed police. they were in, like, riot gear. there was a lot of shouting and the guy it in his mid-20s, dressed in black, hoodies or sportswear, all black, and them being pushed up against a shop front and police shouting to them. i didn't see any weapons or anything like that. >> reporter: and did the police lead these people away or take them somewhere else? what did you see? >> i guess at that poi

. >> and live in london at this hour, fred pleitgen is following this story. the united kingdom is set to observe a moment of silence and we know the death toll could, still, in fact, rise. >> yeah, absolutely, george. that is one of the things people are bracing for. >> you can see that wall that is growing at the moment. it really is a very emotional place here. on monday a moment of silence will take place. at 11:00 a.m., there is a service that will take place here. people are gathering because they want to attend that memorial service. you can tell how affected this community has been by these tragic events. many people who lived here knew folks who were inside that building. they were friends. but then, of course, on the first sunday since that disaster happened, you see that big outpouring of sadness and grief where people really reflect on the tragic events that happened here last week, george. fred, you've seen and witnessed the anger that many people are feeling, especially to officials -- toward their officials. what has been the response to the pri

fred pleitgen looks back at his life and legacy. >> reporter: november, 1989, the fall of the berlin of the end of the cold war. west german chancellor helmut kohl in the limelight. behind the scene there was suspense. >> the night after the fall of the wall was the most decisive moment. >> reporter: it was a make or break moment. how would the soviets react? helmut kohl said he and then u.s. president george h.w. bush assured the soviet leader gore was chof that soviet forces in the east wouldn't be attacked. >> gorbachev trusted our work, decided not to send in the tanks. >> reporter: helmut kohl peace cli helped the two germany toss unity, hailed as father of reunification. the excitement of the moment wore off, economy in the east was in disarray, many former communist companies were shut down, there was mass unemployment and mass discontent. kohl promised the east would flourish, but after 16 years and three terms in office, the german public was no longer convinced of his efforts on the economy and he was finally voted out. his tenure full of other hard fought, controversial ac

frederick pleitgen live for us outside number 10 downing street with the very latest. hello, fred. first, there was the shock of the brexit result in the uk, and now another unexpected election result there tonight. what's going on, and will theresa may still be the prime minister is the question? >> reporter: well, that's a big question right now, don. i can tell you it really is a real nail-biter here in the united kingdom. there are some projections that say theresa may might be able to hold on, but there are also others that say that she will lose her majority. that certainly is a big blow to theresa may because keep in mind that she called this election to begin with because she thought she was going to increase her majority, and there are already people who are calling on her to resign. so certainly it looks as though at this point, don, that there is some political instability with one of america's closest allies here in europe. >> frederick, people here in the u.s. remember that prime minister may came to the united states, visited president trump, who is an extremely contr

live to london now and bring in cnn's frederik pleitgen. fred, talk us through the ramifications for other issues, trade issues, other diplomatic issues of importance because of the u.s. move on the paris climate deal. >> trade issues, security issues, political issues, of course, as well. international alliances also. i think especially with the european allies you're going to see many of them look to different partners for many things, especially when you speak about things like international trade, which, of course, also is embedded into the whole climate change complex as well. so much of it involves putting together new industries and new concepts as well to try and create infrastructure for the future. so there are a lot of european allies that are already doing that. and then all this bleeds into the political realm as well, where in the future if you have a dispute between the u.s. and china, the trade dispute, political dispute, you know, a regional dispute perhaps in the pacific region, where for instance are the europeans going to sta

pleitgen, one of the first reporters on the scene, live for us in london. fred, an all-too-familiar reaction from the folks there in london. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. unfortunately, something like this is all too familiar with the folks in london, but one of the things you can really see about london is that the people here are extremely defiant, you know. there's a lot of people who are out here. morning commutes are going for people exactly as they had planned before. so, certainly, this is a city that's showing that it will not be derailed by terrorism. at the same time, the investigation continues to go on. you mentioned there's about a dozen people who are still in custody. what the authorities are trying to find out right now, dave, is whether or not the attackers had links to some sort of wider network or whether or not they were mostly acting on their own. that's why there are a lot of these raids currently taking place, especially in the east london area. at the same time, as you mentioned, theresa may saying there will be a review of this country'

let's bring in cnn's frederik pleitgen, one of the first reporters on the scene, live for us in london. fredlks there in london. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. unfortunately, something like this is all too familiar with the folks in london, but one of the things you can really see about london is that the people here are extremely defiant, you know. there's a lot of people who are out here. morning commutes are going for people exactly as they had planned before. so, certainly, this is a city that's showing that it will not be derailed by terrorism. at the same time, the investigation continues to go on. you mentioned there's about a dozen people who are still in custody. what the authorities are trying to find out right now, dave, is whether or not the attackers had links to some sort of wider network or whether or not they were mostly acting on their own. that's why there are a lot of these raids currently taking place, especially in the east london area. at the same time, as you mentioned, theresa may saying there will be a review of this country's counterterrorism policies and strategy.

cnn's frederik pleitgen is live from london with some pretty harsh reaction, fred. >> reporter: harshd reaction. i can tell you guys, especially here in europe, every leader here on the continent and probably elsewhere in the world is watching and we'll see what happens there at 3:00 p.m. and there are some pretty harsh words for the united states and for the current white house. there are some leaders who are pleading with president trump to stay in the climate agreement. even the leader of the united nations is saying, look, we could maybe make amendments, but we really want the u.s. to stay in. and then you have others who are threatening, like the head of the commission of the european union, who said look, you can't get out that easily, anyway. this is jean-claude juncker saying the law is the law and everyone must adhere to it. "not everything that is written into international agreement is fake news," he is saying. they're obviously making a reference to words that president trump himself tends to use every once in a while. that same man, jean-claude juncker, also said, look, i

. >> senior international correspondent frederik pleitgen is covering the story and has more on the attackers. what else are you learning, fredrter: there are serious questions about the authorities in the run-up to what happened, especially the past couple years. one of the attackers, khuram shazad butt, who by all accounts appeared to have been the ringleader of these attackers, and it appears as though there was actually an investigation into him. he was known to be part of an extremist group here in the united kingdom, and he was on a terrorism watch list here in the uk. he was being investigated. but apparently, that investigation stopped in 2015 because the authorities here believed that there was no reason to think that he was plotting anything. now, the other interesting thing is that he was actually also featured in a documentary here in this country on the channel 4 network called "the jihadist next door," where he was apparently also spreading some jihadist propaganda as well. so, many people here are asking, how can someone like that have flown under the radar, and how could something like that have happened? agai