IMAGE: Metropolitan Police officers rush to London Bridge after receiving calls of a van ramming into pedestrians, in what they are now describing as a terrorist incident. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Trump posted a series of tweets after two consecutive terror attacks that took place across London on Saturday in which a van hit pedestrians on the London Bridge injuring several people and subsequent stabbings at the Borough Market.
“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK, we will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!” tweeted the US president.
Trump’s second tweet provoked sharp criticism from commentators who saw it as a piece of opportunism at London’s expense.
He tweeted, “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the travel ban as an extra level of safety!”
Federal courts are still debating over the Trump administration’s travel ban on whether it fulfils constitutional criteria but Trump has sought permission from the Supreme Court to enforce the administration’s proposal to temporarily ban people from six Muslim-majority countries fron entering the US.
Donald Trump had promised full cooperation and support of the United States to Britain during his talks with British prime Minister Theresa May in responding to the Westminster attack.
Earlier in the day, minutes after a van mowed down a number of pedestrians on the London Bridge, injuring several, it
was reported that simultaneous terror attacks took place at the Borough Market and Vauxhall.
Soonafter, the police started responding to these incidents across parts of the city.
At the London bridge, witnesses said the van was reported to have swerved onto the pavement and there have been unconfirmed reports of gunfire, The Guardian reported.
At the Borough Market, where there are reports of multiple stabbings, people were forced to take cover under the tables in a resturant as a man entered and stabbed two people.
The Metropolitan Police tweeted, advising people to “run, hide and tell”.
Armed police and emergency vehicles were earlier dispatched to the London Bridge, where there were unconfirmed reports of bodies lying on the ground, The Independent reported.
The London Bridge station has been closed “at the request of police” following what has been described as a “major police incident”.
England has been on the edge since May 22, when a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.
Earlier on March 24, London was struck by a terror attack that killed four people and left dozens injured in the city’s deadliest attack in over a decade.
Masood mowed down people injuring as many as 40 on the Westminster Bridge in a terror attack on London and stabbed a police officer to death as he tried to enter the UK Parliament.
The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that a “soldier of the caliphate” carried out the atrocity in Westminster.
The terror organisation said that the attacker followed a call to attack civilians and security forces in countries allied to the US-led coalition bombing the IS territories in Syria and Iraq.
Source: Rediff