Police officer describes horror of London Bridge attack

A police officer has described the "pandemonium" that faced him and his team when he arrived at the scene of last Saturday's London Bridge attack.

Inspector Jim Cole and his team were at Peckham police station about to finish their shift on Saturday night when a call came in about pedestrians who had been hit by a van.

They arrived to find people running and screaming and seeing the injured lying on the pavement.

"Immediately, I thought it would be terrorist-related," the 41-year-old said.

The scenes that greeted the married father-of-three are the worst he has seen in 18 years as a policeman.

"The people I saw had cuts and what I assumed to be stab injuries.".

"There was somebody on the pavement, there was somebody else who was walking wounded."

He heard gunshots and loud bangs soon after and had no idea if it was coming from the attackers or his fellow officers.

"From updates on the radio, we were aware that people had got out the van and were attacking people in the market," he added.

"But we didn't know if they were armed, how many there were or what the situation was.

"I would described it as pandemonium really."

He and his team managed to get around 200 people to the safety of a pub cellar.

"We had the situation of people coming running out of the market, they were in a state of panic - lots of screaming," Mr Cole said.

"I literally just grabbed hold of as many as we could and directed them into the basement of the bar. I felt that was as reasonably safe a place as we had at the moment, rather than roaming the streets.

"I went down into the basement - there was probably 200 frightened people there, all waiting to find out what happened.

"I told them that we had armed officers outside, everyone was safe and there was a nice big round of applause and cheering - that was really good and that felt good.

"I've dealt with things over the years - people stabbed or murdered and death - but it was the sheer scale of it all," he added.

He paid tribute to his colleagues, including Charlie Guenigault, an off-duty officer who was stabbed as he tackled the terrorists with his bare hands.

He said: "He was injured as he tried to take on people and in the aid of the BTP officer - it was phenomenal bravery really."

Mr Cole said that messages of support from the public "have been fantastic" and said the response from the London community "has been absolutely phenomenal".