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Reports Of Serious Incident On The London Bridge
On Saturday evening in London, local police tweeted that they were responding to a "serious" incident" in the city and many people are left wondering what happened on the London Bridge. Multiple news outlets have reported that a van traveling at about 50 miles an hour struck a number of pedestrians, reportedly leaving dozens of people injured. Various accounts on social media also reported victims were then stabbed and gun shots were fired as well.
UPDATE: The London Bridge attack has since been declared a terrorist incident, according to the Associated Press. London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick on Sunday confirmed that the death toll in the London Bridge attack had been raised to seven, not including three of the attackers, with at least 48 others injured. Dick added that the remaining injured had been transported "to five hospitals across London." Some were in critical condition. The three attackers "were fatally shot by officers within eight minutes of the first emergency call," according to The Washington Post. An additional 12 people have also been arrested in connection with the attack.
EARLIER: A witness told CNN that the alleged driver of the van came "swerving down the roadway at a high rate of speed" and knocked at least one person "about 20 feet into the air."
"Within my line of sight, there were five or six people on the ground that were not moving," the witness told CNN. "It looked to me that the van was aiming at the people."
According to The Sun, several people were seen lying on the ground and were receiving CPR from paramedics after being stabbed and a bomb squad arrived on the scene shortly after the incident.
While authorities still have not said what caused the incident, the bridge has reportedly since been closed in both directions and the neighboring Southwark Bridge has also been shut down, the BBC reported.
Holly Jones, a BBC reporter who was on the bridge at the time of incident, reported that she saw a shirtless man was handcuffed and arrested by police. Reuters later reported that police are searching for three suspects who may be armed.
Ben Leo, a reporter for The Sun, posted a photo of the chaotic aftermath on Twitter, writing that "bodies strewn over the pavement," while another reporter for The Sun, Tess de la Mare, tweeted that there were "bodies everywhere."
Police have not reported the number of victims as a result of the incident, but Jones, the BBC reporter on the scene, said she saw the driver hit about five or six people.
"I'd say there are about four severely injured people," she told the BBC. "They all have paramedics assisting them at the moment."
In addition to the incident on London Bridge, police have also reportedly responded to reports of "stabbings and multiple gunshots" in Borough Market, which is about a five-minute walk from the bridge. Armed police are reportedly at both scenes.
"Two men entered a restaurant at Borough Market, just south of London Bridge, and stabbed two people inside," a witness told CNN.
Saturday's incidents come just weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena and two months after a "a knife-wielding assailant" drove an SUV into a crowd on the sidewalk along Westminster Bridge in London, killing at least four people and injuring about 40 others, according to The New York Times.
Authorities reported both of those were terrorist attacks and it's not confirmed at the moment if today’s incident was also carried out by ISIS. Meanwhile, the country continues to remain on high alert for updates.