the Press Association is reporting that
station staff at monument station claim
that five people have been injured in
this attack on London Bridge the tube
station has been closed off and furry
khureshi we're saying London Bridge is
also closed as armed police investigate
our correspondent Tom Symons is at
London Bridge what more can you tell us
Tom well we've as you say taken up this
position which is in the City of London
just north of the northern end of London
Bridge where this incident looks to have
happened the police have done what they
always do in these situations put in an
enormous cordon a safety zone around
this area as we were coming up to the
point where we are now one of the
officers said to me this is a potential
firearms incident and make sure you take
hard cover if needed so clearly that's
the scale of what we're dealing with
having said that what we have been able
to confirm from pieces of video sent to
us that we we think tally with each
other that there's always a question
mark about pieces of video from from
from open media that shows a group of
passers-by presumably though don't be
sure but it looks like passers by
holding down a man a firearms officer
then moving in towards this group and it
looks as though he's telling them to get
out of the way to get clear and then it
looks as though a shot is fired you can
see a puff of smoke and the man on the
ground falls still now luckily we have
with us John McManus one of our
reporters who was just over the road
John when when this happened can you can
confirm for a skinny that sort of
account we're putting together from
these bits of video that we've seen
there Ali I witnessed some of that
myself Tom I was walking from the south
side of the bridge to the north side on
the other side of the road this was
sometime just after 2 o'clock I could
see what appeared to be a commotion
somebody next to me said it looks like
there's a fight going on there seems to
be several men who were trying to hold
somebody down it looked like a bit of a
rugby scrum they suddenly jumped up
started running away from that person
and I noticed said that armed police had
suddenly arrived on the northern side of
the bridge all the traffic stopped the
place were armed they were shouting that
the person on the ground and telling us
to get off the bridge and that's when I
heard what sounded like two shots fired
in the direction of this person as I was
leaving the bridge I could see that
person was lying prone on the ground
they didn't seem to be moving I couldn't
see if it was a man or a woman
I was on the other side of of several
lanes of traffic on that bridge I I and
all the other people on the bridge ran
off to the north side of the bridge
police moved us right back and as we
were moving even further back hundreds
of meters away
I was outside of the bridge but I heard
several what sounded like several more
shots then carry on and please still
moving this away from the direction of
the bridge so after the shots were fired
could you see what the man was doing on
the ground was he still was he moving
he was absolutely still he wasn't moving
at all if indeed it was a man I couldn't
tell from where I was I was on the other
pavement the the opposite pavement so I
couldn't quite see if it was a man or a
woman but they were slumped right next
to the next to the wall of the bridge
and they were not moving as I left but
as I said we and everybody else on the
bridge including many many tourists who
were there of course taking in the view
of Tower Bridge were moving off the
bridge very very quickly while this was
all unfolding and as you can see behind
us there's police vehicles flying around
all over the place we've seen unmarked
vehicles moving towards the London
Bridge area the cordon is pretty big I
mean there's a what probably have five
10-minute walk to the north side of the
bridge from here John don't you think
yes that bridge was absolutely packed
with traffic pedestrians and tourists
it's one of London's busiest bridges
stretching from where we are the City of
London right down to the south side of
the river and of course London Bridge
station which is a major terminus here
in London always a very busy station so
lots of people were heading in that
direction when this began to unfold as
we were moved off the bridge police
started putting up their cordons
and moving people away and as you can
see they've moved us actually quite far
back now hundreds of hundreds of meters
from the north side of the bridge all
the traffic was stopped I saw buses
thought people had to get off the buses
taxis turned round drivers redirected
and people told to walk in this
direction fast away from the bridge as
fast as they could and we are now pretty
far back from where this incident
happened on the bridge itself and I'm
just interested to go back to the
beginning of this incident to tell me
what you saw
the first thing you noticed was with
this group of people did they seem to
know the man were they trying to
restrain him as it seems on the videos
can you give us a a general view on that
the first thing I noticed were a couple
of people running past me South down the
bridge running very quickly and at first
I just thought I didn't think anything
of it I thought this is a busy bridge
people are in a rush I thought perhaps
they were running to catch a train at
London Bridge then I realized something
was going on on the other side of the
bridge on the other side of the road
from me where there was I think there
was some shouting though I don't want my
memories to play tricks with me now I
think there was some shouting but there
were definitely several people who were
piled on top of a person who were piled
on top of a person and there was a man
from my side of the bridge ran across
the road to join them at that point the
traffic had stopped on both sides of the
bridge and that's when I suddenly
realized there were police there and
they were armed they were pointing their
guns in the direction of this man who
was now at this point on his own on the
bridge and I heard those shots fired
what I wanna think when I very clearly
think were shots Joe just because we're
the police are moving around us he's
going to hand back shortly to to the
studio but as you can see the situation
is still developing where we are Tom
timings and indeed malice thank you both
for that update I should say to you that
Reuters news agency is quoting the
police in London and it's saying that
the circumstances regarding the incident
at London Bridge are unclear but as a
precaution the police are currently
responding as though it is
terror-related now that is not the same
thing as saying that this is a terrorist
attack but the police are saying that as
the circumstances regarding the incident
are unclear as a precaution they are
currently responding to it as though it
is terror related