London attack death toll rises to 7, incident under control: Police chief

June 4, 2017

London, Jun 4: Seven people are confirmed to have died in an attack by three assailants who drove a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in the nearby Borough Market area, London's Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick said on Sunday.

terror

"It has now been confirmed sadly that seven members of the public have died. In addition, as you know, we believe, three suspects are dead," she said in a televised statement.

Dick said police believed the incident was under control, but officers needed to conduct a thorough search of the area to ensure everyone was accounted for and no further suspects were at large.

"Our priority now is to work with our colleagues in the national counter-terrorism police network and also with the intelligence agencies and other security services to establish more details about these individuals who carried out the attack and the background to it," she said.

The BBC showed a photograph of two possible London attackers shot by police, one of whom had canisters strapped to his body. Hours after the attack the area remained sealed off.

The London ambulance service said at least 48 people had been taken to six hospitals across the city. Three major London hospitals said that they were on lockdown to keep patients and staff safe.

A reporter said some time after the attack began that he had heard loud bangs near the Borough Market area.

Streets around London Bridge and Borough Market, fashionable districts packed with bars and restaurants, would have been busy with people on a Saturday night out. BBC showed dozens of people, evidently caught up in the attack, being escorted through a police cordon with their hands on their heads.

Witnesses described a white van careering into pedestrians near London Bridge and knocking over several people.

"It looked like he was aiming for groups of people. I froze beacause I didn't know what to do," Mark Roberts, 53, a management consultant, told Reuters. He saw at least six people on the ground after the van veered on and off the pavement.

"It was horrendous," he said.

A taxi driver told the BBC that three men got out of the van with long knives and "went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people."

Witnesses said people ran into a bar to seek shelter.

"People started running and screaming, and the van crashes into the railing behind. We went towards Borough Market and everyone went inside (the bar). Everyone in the bar started pushing people from the exits," one witness who gave his name as Brian, 32, told Reuters.

Another witness, who declined to be named, his white top covered in blood, described a scene of panic in the bar.

"They hit the emergency alarm. There was a line of people going down to the emergency exit. And then people started screaming coming back up," the 31-year-old said.

"Around the corner there was a guy with a stab wound on his neck ... There was a doctor in the pub and she helped him. They put pressure on the stab wound."

BBC radio said witnesses saw people throwing tables and chairs at the perpetrators of the attack to protect themselves.

Islamic State call

Islamic State earlier on Saturday sent out a call on instant messaging service Telegram urging its followers to launch attacks with trucks, knives and guns against "Crusaders" during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Similar attacks, in Berlin, Nice, Brussels and Paris, have been carried out by militants over the past couple of years.

"Following updates from police and security officials, I can confirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism," Prime Minister Theresa May said.

London's Thames river police said it was working with the lifeboat rescue service to help evacuate people caught up in the attack, described by police as a terrorist incident.

US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to offer US help to Britain. The White House said he had been briefed on the incidents by his national security team.

One woman told Reuters she saw what appeared to be three people with knife wounds and possibly their throats cut at London Bridge at the Thames river. Reuters was unable to immediately verify her account.

Stabbings on the street

The incident bore similarities to a March attack on Westminster Bridge, west of London Bridge, in which a man killed five people after driving into a crowd of pedestrians before stabbing a police officer in the grounds of parliament.

Several witnesses also reported hearing gunshots around London Bridge.

"We were in an Uber (taxi) going towards London Bridge and suddenly we saw people running. The Uber stopped, we asked people what was going on - people said there was shooting," said Yoann Belmere, 40, a French banker living in London.

"Now the area is completely closed with police cars going one way and ambulances going the other," he said.

A witness said two men had entered a restaurant in the Borough Market area and stabbed two people inside. He said a waitress was stabbed in the throat and a man was stabbed in the back.

The Manchester bombing on May 22 was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London's transport network.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

Washington, Feb 23: U.S. president Donald Trump on Saturday said he was looking forward to being with his "great friends" in India next week as he retweeted a short video in which his face was superimposed on the hit movie-character Bahubali, showing the president as a great saviour bringing peace to his kingdom.

Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25, accompanied by a high-level delegation including first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and a galaxy of top American officials.

"Look so forward to being with my great friends India!" Trump said in the tweet.

Along with the tweet, Trump retweeted an 81-second video by a Twitter account identified as "Sol" with the handle Solmemes1.

"To celebrate Trump's visit to India I wanted to make a video to show how in my warped mind it will go... USA and India united!" the handle Solmemes1 tweeted in the original post with the video.

Trump appears as a great saviour, in the short animated clip, riding on a chariot with Melania. A few stills later, Trump is seen riding a horse carrying on his shoulders his son Donald Jr and daughter Ivanka.

Later, he is welcomed by Narendra Modi in a village setting. Hundreds and thousands of people are seen welcoming Trump in the video.

"This week Trump will visit India and in celebration I have created a new meme for the occasion... You few, who are my patrons, get to see it first!" Sol told viewers on subscription content service Patreon on Saturday. A few hours later, Trump retweeted the video.

In the Twitter description, Sol describes herself as "award winning master memetician, professor of memology at University of GFY, my views are my own and not associated with real life."

The Trump-Bahubali video, which ends with "USA and India United", went viral after Trump retweeted it. In a few hours, it was seen by nearly 6 lakh people.

Sol in one of her previous posts, dated January 23, writes she was inspired by a video of Bahubali sent to her by a friend, which is the story of 'good defeating evil.'

This inspired Sol to create her first Bahubali-theme meme. The video, lasting 93 seconds, is titled "Jiyo Re Baahu Trump", in which the first lady is seen wearing a saree. "Jiyo Re Bahubali," is the theme song of the video.

"I just loved this video when I saw it! A friend sent it to me and he told me that it is the story of good defeating evil... it was so fitting I had to make it (meme)..." Sol wrote in her post.

Sol's posts show that she is an admirer of Trump. Sol's January 23 video was released at the peak of Trump's impeachment proceedings.

Trump is seen being greeted by an elephant, which bears the logo of the Republican Party.

Towards the end of the video, Trump is seen riding the elephant, and putting on fire the effigy of "Raavan" marked as "D" in a big circle representing the opposition Democratic Party.

An arrow is given by warrior Narendra Modi to the First Lady, who then passes it on to Trump, before he lights the effigy.

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News Network
March 28,2020

London: Italy on Friday recorded the most daily deaths of any country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and Spain had its deadliest day, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first major world leader to test positive.

Italy reported 969 new deaths, Spain 769 and France 299 as Europe reeled from a crisis that has put millions at risk around the world and threatened a global economic meltdown.

In other grim milestones, AFP tallies showed a total of 300,000 cases now recorded in Europe with more than 26,000 deaths worldwide, and the United States overtook China as the country with the most infections.

Italy showed infection rates continuing a downward trend and Spain said its rate of new infections appeared to be slowing, but other countries were bracing to feel the full impact of the virus's spread.

The World Health Organization's regional director for Africa warned the continent faced a "dramatic evolution" of the pandemic, as South Africa became the latest nation to start life under lockdown and reported its first COVID-19 deaths.

Johnson, whose country has seen more than 14,000 declared coronavirus cases and 759 deaths, said he had developed mild symptoms over the previous 24 hours and was self-isolating after testing positive.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock also tested positive with mild symptoms.

Europe has suffered the brunt of the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks, with millions across the continent on lockdown and the streets of Paris, Rome and Madrid eerily empty.

In France — where nearly 2,000 people have died -- the government announced it was extending its stay-at-home order until at least April 15. While severe, the 299 new deaths it recorded on Friday was lower than the 365 reported the previous day.

The death of a 16-year-old girl from the virus has particularly shaken France, and shattered the belief of many young people that they are immune.

The girl's mother Sabine told AFP that Julie "just had a cough" at first but deteriorated quickly. She died on Wednesday, less than a week after showing her first symptoms.

"It's unbearable," Sabine said. "We were supposed to have a normal life."

Focus was also turning to the United States, where the number of known infections jumped by 18,000 on Friday, reaching more than 97,000 -- higher than both China and Italy. The US also recorded 345 deaths over the past 24 hours, with a total toll of 1,478.

In New York City, health workers are battling a surging toll of dead and infected at the US epicentre of the crisis, including an increasing number of younger patients.

"Now it's 50-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 30-year-olds," said one respiratory therapist at the Jewish Medical Center in Queens.

They "didn't listen about not going out or protecting themselves and washing their hands", he said.

- 'Afraid and lost' -

The coronavirus first emerged in China late last year before spreading globally, with more than half a million declared cases in 183 countries and territories.

Over the last six days, as many new cases have been diagnosed around the world as in the previous 80 days.

Beijing managed to contain its spread with lockdowns and quarantines and its epicentre Wuhan is in the process of easing severe movement restrictions in place for two months.

Three billion people around the world have been told to stay indoors.

In a historic first, Pope Francis performed the rarely recited "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to an empty Saint Peter's Square.

"Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by," he said.

"We find ourselves afraid and lost," he said, describing the coronavirus as a "tempest".

Health care systems even in the most developed nations are stretched to breaking point and medical workers have been having to make difficult choices.

"If I've got five patients and only one bed, I have to choose who gets it," Sara Chinchilla, a paediatrician at a hospital near Madrid, told AFP.

The WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the dire lack of protective gear for frontline health workers was one of the most pressing problems in the fight to prevent deaths.

"The chronic global shortage of personal protective equipment is now one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives," he told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

Lockdowns and other measures are wreaking havoc on the global economy, with fears of a downturn worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"It is clear that we have entered a recession" that will be worse than in 2009 following the global financial crisis, International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said Friday.

Unprecedented stimulus measures have helped markets bounce back after a brutal month, but people around the world are bracing for economic hardship.

The United States reported that 3.3 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week -- by far the highest number ever recorded.

Retail workers in particular have suffered as many countries shutter non-essential business, while airlines and the global tourism industry have been dealt devastating blows.

The fashion industry was the latest hit on Friday, with Paris men's fashion week and haute couture shows cancelled along with Milan men's fashion week.

- Armies of volunteers -

The World Tourism Organization said Friday it expected tourist arrivals to fall by 20-30 percent this year, with losses of $300 billion-450 billion in international tourism receipts.

But there have been rays of hope in the midst of the crisis.

Armed groups in Cameroon, the Philippines and Yemen have moved in recent days to reduce violence after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued an appeal for ceasefires.

And armies of volunteers have emerged in many countries to bring help to the needy, with food deliveries for the elderly, free taxi rides, accommodation for health workers, and even home-sewn face masks.

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News Network
June 17,2020

Vienna, Jun 17: Austrian police fined a man 500 euros for loudly breaking wind after officers stopped him earlier this month to check his identity.

The police defended the massive fine saying he had deliberately emitted a "massive flatulence," lifting his backside from the bench where he was sitting.

The accused complained of what he called the disproportionate and unjustified fine when he gave his account of the June 5 events on the O24 news website.

In reply to social media commentaries that followed, the police in the Austrian capital justified their reaction on Twitter.

"Of course, nobody is put on the spot if one slips out by accident," the police said.

However, in this case, the police said, the young man had appeared "provocative and uncooperative" in general.

He then "slightly raised himself from the bench, looked at the officers and patently, in a completely deliberate way, emitted a massive flatulence in their immediate proximity."

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