London terror attack: Seven victims killed, three suspects shot dead by police

Seven victims were killed and three attackers were shot dead by armed British police after a van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge and reports of multiple stabbings in the nearby Borough Market area.

"At this stage, we believe that seven people have died in addition to the three attackers shot dead by police," said Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.

London's ambulance service said it had taken more than 48 people to hospitals across the British capital

The three assailants were wearing fake suicide vests.

"The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes," Britain's head of counter-terrorism Mark Rowley said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday that the incident was being treated as a potential act of terrorism.

“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,” May said just over four days before voting is due to begin in a June 8 national election.

“This is a fast moving investigation,” May said. “I want to express my huge gratitude to the police and emergency services who are on the scene. Our thoughts are with those who are caught up in these dreadful events.”

Three suspects who may be armed after London Bridge incident are being sought after by police, the BBC reported.

London’s ambulance service said it had taken at least 20 people to hospital and treated others on the scene.

“We have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London following the incident at London Bridge,” the London Ambulance Service's assistant director of operations, Peter Rhodes, said in a statement on Sunday.

“We have also treated a number of people at the scene for less serious injuries,” he added.

A witness told the BBC she saw a speeding white van veering into pedestrians. The witness said the van hit five to six people.

One, Holly Jones, told the BBC a white van veered off the road and struck as many as six people. She said she saw at least four or five people on the ground.

Another witness, Will Heaven, said he saw people who appeared to have been hit, and one being put into an ambulance.

“We saw injured people on the road, injured people on the pavement,” he told Sky News.

Heaven said he saw armed police arriving on the scene.

London's transport authority said London Bridge rail station had been closed at the request of the police.

A person who was on London Bridge after an incident on Saturday told a Reuters reporter that she saw three people who appeared to have their throats cut.

The London ambulance service said it was responding to the incident.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the statement by the witness.

CNN cites eyewitness as saying that two men entered a restaurant near London Bridge and stabbed two people inside

On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.

The Manchester bombing 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.

(With AP)