London attack: Here’s what happened this weekend

by Dramelin 2:00 AM 0 comments

A pleasant London evening along and near the River Thames was shattered Saturday by related attacks that killed seven people and injured dozens.
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed responsibility.
A van plowed into pedestrians on London Bridge.
The vehicle continued on to nearby Borough Market, on the river`s south side, where three male attackers went on a stabbing spree.
The assailants died in a hail of police bullets.
Sunday, amid the London attack`s aftermath, Ariana Grande played a benefit concert in Manchester along with other pop stars.
The event was a response to an ISIS-claimed attack on May 22 in which asuicide bomber killed 22 people after a Grande concert in the city about 200 miles northwest of London.
The killer was identified as Salman Abedi, 23.
has suffered three episodes of terrorism since March 22, when another vehicular assault on another London bridge — Westminster, close to Big Ben and Parliament  —  caused four deaths.
After exiting the SUV, the assailant fatally stabbed a fifth victim, a police officer, before authorities shot him to death.
ISIS called Khalid Masood, 52, a "soldier," though police have said there is no evidence of a connection to any extremist group.
The investigation and the week ahead Authorities made 12 arrests and conducted exhaustive searches across an East London neighborhood Sunday amid a backdrop of the attackers` apparent ties to Islamic extremism and methods endorsed by ISIS.
In addition to that group`s claim of responsibility, witnesses said they heard the attackers shout "this is for Allah,” British media reported.
They wore what appeared to be suicide vests, police said — but were in fact hoax devices.
Prime Minister Theresa May called for international agreements to regulate cyberspace and deny terrorism the "safe space it needs to breed.
" Twitter and Google were among major tech firms issuing statements saying they were working to deny terrorists an online voice.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said people should expect an increased police presence over coming days, adding there`s no “reason to be alarmed” by it.
His use of the phrase was blasted by President Trump in a tweet.
Khan also invited the city`s residents and visitors to attend a Monday vigil honoring victims of Saturday`s rampage.
The vigil, scheduled for 6 p.
at Potters Field Park, will serve to remember those lost, express sympathy for loved ones and show solidarity against terrorism.
While grappling with this latest trauma, Britain is looking ahead to Thursday`s fast-approaching parliamentary elections.
The major political parties suspended campaigning Sunday because of the attack in the capital.
Manchester concert: Grande gives back "The show must go on" took on greater meaning than it already had ahead of Ariana Grande`s Manchester return.
 Fifty thousand people joined Grande, the Black Eyed Peas, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Usher and other stars for an emotional but uplifting show.
The concert benefited victims and families of the Manchester bombing of less than two weeks ago, which claimed 22 lives including an 8-year-old girl.
 Ending the show, Grande broke down while singing Over the Rainbow, plaintive and poignant enough when Judy Garland sang it about the make-believe world of The Wizard of Oz.
The casualties Christine Archibald, from Canada, was the first person to have died in the attack to be named.
"We grieve the loss of our beautiful, loving daughter and sister.
She had room in her heart for everyone and believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected," her family, who live in Castlegar in British Columbia, said in a statement.
The statement added: "She lived this belief, working in a shelter for the homeless until she moved to Europe to be with her fiancé.
She would have had no understanding of the callous cruelty that caused her death.
Please honour her by making your community a better place.
Volunteer your time and labour or donate to a homeless shelter.
Tell them Chrissy sent you.
" Some of the 48 wounded taken to local hospitals had life-threatening injuries, and 36 remained hospitalized late Sunday, police said.
Twenty-one were said to be in critical condition.
In stable condition was a British Transport Police officer who showed "enormous courage in the face of danger, as did many others who were at the scene and rushed to help," Chief Constable Paul Crowther said.
An off-duty London police officer also was injured.
The suspects Not much has been disclosed of the three suspects.
  Police believe they know their identities, but did not reveal them.
As the attackers "agreed to kill and be killed," and wore fake suicide vests, they bear the marks of a terrorist cell, observed Michael Pregent, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
The vests were an apparent attempt to force police to keep their distance.
But Mark Rowley, head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, indicated that police ran toward the attack as it unfolded.
"I am humbled by the bravery of an officer who will rush toward a potential suicide bomber thinking only of protecting others," he said.
Eight officers fired about 50 shots, killing the attackers, Rowley said.
Why London? What`s next? The randomness of three terrorist attacks in Britain since March 22 puts officials around the world on edge, making it difficult to anticipate a next strike.
Despite the avowed ISIS connection to all three incidents, experts see differences among the attacks and the attackers, and the degree, if any, to which they may actually have been connected with the Islamic extremist group.
Britain has a large well of 23,000 radicalized Muslims, including 3,000 judged to pose an imminent threat, intelligence officials told the British Sunday Times in a May 27 report.
Estimates of Britons who traveled to fight with radical groups in Syria, range from 800 to 2,000, according to media reports.
It’s unclear how many of them had returned.
In the wake of the London attack, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday the Big Apple was on high alert, with critical response units in "particularly prominent" locations.
Social media moments Little and not-so-little moments resonated as a president, pop stars and regular people took to social media in response to the London attack and the Manchester concert.
One of the most touching moments of the concert, dubbed "One Love Manchester," came when a police officer joined hands with a group of children and skipped in a circle as Justin Bieber performed.
President Trump`s tweets about London included the mini missives highlighting political arguments over the terror threat, but also a simple message of all-caps support for London and the United Kingdom, vowing that the U.
"will be there" to help.
On Instagram, Ariana Grande shared snapshots of hersurprise, pre-concert visit to hospitalized bombing survivors.
Two pictures showing smiling, young girls from their beds in Royal Manchester Children`s Hospital had north of four million likes apiece as of late Sunday night in the U.
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