Enough is enough

Three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing revellers nearby on Saturday night, killing seven people in what Britain called the work of Islamist militants engaged in a new trend of terrorism.

The attack occurred five days ahead of a parliamentary election and was the third to hit Britain in less than three months. Prime Minister Theresa May said the election would go ahead as planned on Thursday.

"It is time to say enough is enough," she said in a televised statement outside her Downing Street office, where flags few at half-mast.

"We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are," May said, calling for a strengthened counter-terrorism strategy that could include longer jail sentences for some offences and new cyberspace regulations.

Police raided a building in the Barking district of east London yesterday. Sky News reported it was the address of one of the attackers and a witness told the TV channel that residents had heard controlled explosions early in the morning.

"We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism," May said.

"Perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots ... and not even as lone attackers radicalised online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack."

She said the series of attacks were not connected in terms of planning and execution, but were inspired by what she called a "single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism" that represented a perversion of Islam and of the truth. She said this ideology had to be confronted both abroad and at home.

"While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is - to be frank - far too much tolerance of extremism in our country," she said, without elaborating.

US President Donald Trump, taking to Twitter yesterday, urged the world to stop being "politically correct" in order to ensure public security against terrorism.