New Delhi:
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Sunday that the June 8 general election will be held as planned despite another terrorist attack in London as she blamed the "evil ideology of Islamist extremism" for the three terror attacks in the country.
Speaking outside Downing Street after she chaired the emergency COBRA meeting with senior security chiefs, May said, "Violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process."
She said "it is time to say enough is enough" as shecondemned the terror attack on "innocent and unarmed civilians" on London Bridge and Borough Market area of the city, which left seven people dead and 48 injured in London.
She said the recent terror attacks in Britain, while not directly linked, "are bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism." "It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth. Defeating this ideology is one of the great challenges of our time."
"We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism," she said. The prime minister said attacks are now inspired "by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack". "We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are," she said.
She revealed that the UK's security and intelligence services have disrupted "five credible plots" since the Parliament attack in London in March. The British Prime Minister announced that she plans toreview the UK's counter-terror legislation.
"There is far too much tolerance for extremism in our country," she said. In reference to the elections, she said that national campaigning will resume tomorrow, adding: "We will come together and, united, we will take on our enemies."
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick praised the "extraordinary bravery" of her officers, on and off duty, who risked their lives by rushing to confront the attackers.
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Calling for calm, she said: "The last thing we need ispeople over-reacting or taking out their frustrations onpeople in other communities or in their own communities."?
A white van hit pedestrians on London Bridge on Saturday night, then three men got out and stabbed people in nearby Borough Market. It is the third terror attack in the UK in three months,following the car and knife attack in Westminster in March, which left five people dead, and the Manchester bombing lessthan two weeks ago, in which 22 people were killed.
With PTI inputs
