London Bridge terror attack inquest: Terrorist wiped knife on beard after killing eight people in ‘chilling gesture’

From the London Evening Standard and the Telegraph

A terrorist washed his knife and wiped it on his beard in a “chilling gesture” after killing eight people at London Bridge and Borough Market, an inquest has heard. Khuram Butt, 27, was caught on CCTV cameras cleaning his 12 inch pink ceramic knife inside Black and Blue restaurant while Youssef Zaghba, 22, took a drink from the tap behind the bar.

A grim compilation of video clips from CCTV, dashboard cameras and handheld camera phones charted the progress of the atrocity in minute detail.

It showed the moment, at 10.06pm on June 3 2017, a white rental van first mounted the pavement on the east pavement of London Bridge and hit two pedestrians, sending one woman flying.

A packed courtroom at the Old Bailey was warned in advance about the graphic nature of the CCTV, which showed the vehicle zig-zag across the road into crowds of pedestrians.

Jonathan Hough QC, counsel for the coroner, had warned the families of the victims in court that “distressing images” would be shown, and Butt’s reaction was “the most chilling”.

There were shocked gasps in court one of the Old Bailey as the inquest was shown footage of diner Roy Larner, dubbed the Lion of London Bridge, being savagely stabbed in the stomach.

In the space of three minutes, the attackers had struck Xavier Thomas, 45, and Christine Archibald, 30, with a van on the bridge then fatally stabbed Alexandre Pigeard, 26, Sara Zelenak, 21, Kirsty Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39, around Borough Market.

CCTV from a bus then recorded the traumatic moment Christine Archibald, 30, was caught beneath the wheel of the van and dragged along the road for several yards. Her partner, Tyler Ferguson, could be seen desperately chasing the vehicle and then sliding to his knees next to his stricken fiance, who later died of her injuries.

Attackers Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba then crashed their van outside the Barrowboy and Banker pub, sending debris raining down on punters in the courtyard of the Boro Bistro below.One passerby began filming on his mobile phone as the terrorists charged into the Boro Bistro courtyard, screaming: “Allahu Akbar.” 

Redouane – wearing a stripey jumper – was filmed bending down to stab Kirsty Boden, a 28-year-old Australian nurse who was tending to fatally injured waiter Alexandre Pigeard, 26. Butt, meanwhile, was seen “lunging at customers with a knife”,

Other members of the public appeared to stand up to the attackers, with one throwing a chair at Butt outside another restaurant. The last victim, Mr Echeverria, was seen in footage swinging his skateboard at the knife-waving attackers as he ran in to help two unarmed officers.

The onslaught came to an end when the attackers, wearing mock suicide belts, were shot by City of London Police marksmen. .. at 10.16pm. A stray bullet injured a man watching through a window of the Wheatsheaf pub opposite.

It emerged the terrorists were shot several more times while on the ground because police saw they were “still moving”.

Mr Hough said police “believed they were going to activate the explosive devices and fired further shots”.

Photographs from ITV news. Top left Khuram Butt, right Rachid Redouane,
bottom left one of the pink ceramic knives.