By Darius Zheng/The Santiago Times
LONDON – Last Saturday, on 3rd June, a wave of horror swept across the capital of the United Kingdom, as the country yet again experiences another terrorist attack.
Barely recovering from the attack in the city of Manchester on the night of 22 May when 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up as crowds were leaving a performance by US singer Ariana Grande, the city on Saturday saw yet three men driving a white van across the city’s London Bridge knocking down pedestrians and stabbing others at the nearby Borough Market.
A total of ten people were killed, including the three assailants who were gunned down by the police, and leaving 48 others injured – including 21 who are currently still in critical condition.
In remembering the victims of the London attack, the city held a vigil this evening at 6 p.m. BST at the city’s Potters Fields Park, barely a mile away from the sites of the attack. Even with the slight drizzle that London occasionally experiences, it did not deter people from attending the vigil led by the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan.
Speaking to an audience flanked by religious leaders, Khan said that the city will never be “broken by terrorism” and that the city will “stand together”.
Amongst the audience were Muslim groups and individuals in the country who have turned out in numbers to pay their respects to the victims of the attack, as well as to denounce the terrorism act that rocked the city just two nights ago.
One of the groups that attended was a bunch of girls from Eden Girls’ School Waltham Forest, an Islamic secondary school for girls based in East London.
“We wanted to show our condolences to the victims and their families and we just want to pay our respects to those that have unfortunately been involved in the attack. It’s devastating to all of us,”said the group’s teacher-in-charge.
“We’re here to kind of represent that we are Muslim and we are British, and we stand united, that it’s humanity,” she added.
One of the girls added: “The fact that they sense they were representing Islam is the worst thing I think, because I’m Muslim and I know that the religion is about peace and well that (the attack) definitely didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Terrorism has no faith or race,” the teacher-in-charge pointed out.
As of publication date, major bridges in London were seen to have added security, with police cars doing regular patrol as well as armed policemen on duty. Some bus routes have also been diverted as London Bridge is currently still out of bounds to members of the public.
As many as 12 people have also been arrested in East London’s Barking on Sunday morning local time, of which seven of them were women. A 55-year-old man was later released without charge.
