By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA) – Police on Saturday were investigating possible terror attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market amid reports of a van mowing down pedestrians.
Police have declared the incidents "terror attacks" as they launched a massive operation in central London.
“The Metropolitan Police are responding to the horrific terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market,” Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a strongly worded statement that condemned the “barbaric acts” he described as a “deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night.”
Reports of a stabbing in Vauxhall was later determined to be unrelated to the London Bridge and Borough Market.
Prime Minister Theresa May suspended her election campaign and returned to the capital following the reports.
May will chair a high-level security meeting Sunday.
“The terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism,” she said in a statement, as state broadcasters BBC reported multiple fatalities.
National Rail wrote in a tweet that “trains unable to call at London Bridge, Waterloo East, London Charing Cross and London Cannon Street”.
The U.K. has been the site of deadly terror attacks in recent months.
British national Khalid Masood carried out an attack in March by mowing down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before attacking police outside of the parliament building.
Three civilians were killed on the bridge and one police officer was stabbed to death outside the parliament. Dozens of people were injured in the attack.
Masood was shot dead moments after the attack.
More recently, 22 victims were killed when suspected suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device May 22 in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena at the end of a pop concert. Fifty-nine others were injured.
The terror threat level was upgraded following that attack to “critical” – which meant a terror attack was imminent, but it was downgraded to “severe” after a few days.
In a tweet early Sunday, London police asked the public to “remain calm, but be alert & vigilant”.