How the horrific London terrorist attack unfolded, minute by minute

IT began with a white van driving into pedestrians and ended with a knife rampage in a busy London pub strip. This is how the latest terrorist attack unfolded.

London’s shocking terror attack began with a van running down pedestrians. Picture: Supplied

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• Eyewitnesses tell of London terror attack horror
• Van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge
• What we know about the attacks so far

SATURDAY night’s attack started when a white van with three men inside was driven onto London Bridge from the north bank of the Thames, and began heading south.

Eyewitnesses said the van was speeding at around 80kmh as it veered up onto the footpath and mowed down pedestrians as it careened along the bridge.

Police began receiving calls about the van at 10.08pm.

It appears to be a white delivery-style van, marked with the logo of the Hertz car rental group and B&Q, a UK hardware and home improvements chain.

After it smashed into pedestrians on London Bridge, the van crashed outside a pub and three attackers jumped out and began stabbing people. Picture: @SkyNewsBreak

If the car is a rented vehicle, it would be the second one used in a UK terror attack this year — Khalid Masood rented the sedan he used to run down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, about 2.5km from London Bridge, on March 22.

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Emergency services and bystanders rush to help people hit by the van on London Bridge.

Still from a dashcam video showing victims of the London Bridge terror Attack. Source: Radoslav Petrov/YouTube

The van is thought to have followed the road over London Bridge, a major arterial known as the A3 which becomes the Borough High Street.

It then crashed into a lamppost outside the Barrowboy and Banker pub on the High Street. Daylight revealed photographs of the van, still in situ, its front doors open and the rear doors into the cargo hold also wide open.

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Police tell patrons of Katzenjammers to get down during a terror attack in London. Picture: @Yatesy17 / Twitter

Police tell patrons of Katzenjammers to get down during a terror attack in London. Picture: @Yatesy17 / Twitter

The men, wearing hoax vests rigged up to look like explosive devices, jumped out of the van, and staying in a group, began attacking passers-by, wielding large knives and blades.

They appear to have turned right into the crowded and winding streets around the historic Borough Market, a busy restaurant and bar area on the south side of the Thames just over the London Bridge.

London bridge How the attack happened

Police swarmed London Bridge after reports began flooding in of the terror attack. Picture: EPA

Their exact route through Borough is yet to be confirmed, but injured people were seen being treated on the roadway on Southwark Street near the Thrale Street intersection.

They attacked patrons at the Black and Blue Steakhouse in Stoney Street, where diners and passers-by fought back, pelting them with bottles and bar stools.

Several eye witnesses reported the men were yelling “this is for Allah’’ as they attacked people at random, heightening fears it was an Islamic State-inspired terrorism attack.

At 10.16pm, eight minutes after they received the first call, police confronted the men outside the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Stoney Street and shot them dead.

Members of the emergency services at the scene of a terror attack in London. Picture: AFP

Police at the scene at Southwark Bridge after an attack on London Bridge. Picture: Getty Images

Seven people were killed (as well as the three attackers) and 48 taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment.

Police launched boats to search for victims who may have been thrown from, or jumped off, the bridge into the icy waters of the Thames.

An armed Police officer looks through his weapon on London Bridge. Picture: AP