- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
A POLICE officer has told an inquest how he pointed out at Khuram Butt, thought to be the ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack, and yelled “shoot him.”
PC Tim Andrews told inquests into the terrorists’ deaths on Wednesday (3) how he and colleagues came face-to-face with attackers as they were stabbing their last victim.
PC Andrews and PC Bartosz Tchorzewski had been on duty when they received a report that a van had mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians.
At first they thought it was a drink-driver, but soon realised after they saw an injured man lying at the entrance to Borough Market.
They came across the three attackers as they walked down Middle Road to investigate.
“Khuram Butt had a football shirt on and he was standing with two knives in either hand,” PC Andrews told the Old Bailey. “The other two were in dark clothes also with knives.
“Then it dawned on me it was probably a terrorist attack. I pressed my emergency button and asked for emergency assistance, firearms support.”
Although they lost sight of the terrorists shortly after calling for support, the officers saw the trio stabbing another man on Stoney Street.
“They were stabbing him repeatedly. We started to close them down to assist the gentleman,” said PC Andrews.
He said he was about 10 metres away when an armed response vehicle pulled.
“I was pointing at Butt shouting, ‘Shoot him! Shoot him!’,” PC Andrews told the court.
“Butt started to close the officer down. The officer pulled the weapon up and shot him a number of times,” he said.
Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, had killed eight victims and injured 48 more in a 10-minute rampage in 2017. All three attackers were shot dead in Stoney Street.
The inquests continue.
