Image

London attackers eyed a 7.5 tonne truck initially: reports

by IBNS 10 Jun 2017, 08:26 am

London, Jun 10 (IBNS): The London Bridge attack could have been far more ghastly if the three attackers had stuck to their original plan of using a seven and a half tonne truck, reports said.

The Jun 3 attack killed at least eight people and injured dozens, after three terrorists drove into pedestrians on the London Bridge and later resorted to stabbing people in the nearby Borough Market.

The Metropolitan police later named Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba as the attackers. 

According to police, the three men had planned to use a heavier vehicle but the plan didn't work out as they failed to provide payment details.

Later, a smaller truck from a DIY store was used, which contained petrol bombs.

Reports have also suggested that the three men used an apartment in Barking area of London as a safe house.

The London Bridge attack was the second such attack in the UK in a space of a week.

Earlier, at least 22 people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb inside the Manchester Arena.

Scores of people were hurt, who had gathered there to watch a live concert of American pop singer Ariana Grande.

Meanwhile, following the attack, UK Prime Minister slammed the terrorist ideology as "a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth.'

"First, while the recent attacks are not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense. They are bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division and promotes sectarianism," May's statement read.

"It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth," the statement added.