The attacks in the London Bridge area that took place last Saturday could have been a far more gruesome attack had one of the three criminals been able to buy the truck of his choice. According to latest reports coming out of London, the person responsible for buying the truck had originally wanted a bigger one to cause maximum damage, however, he had not been able to do so. Apparently, his payment was declined.
Target was more damage
Following the attacks, the police in London had responded immediately and neutralized the three attackers within eight minutes.
However, the investigation has been going on in full swing over the past week and some of the details are now slowly emerging about the diabolical plan that one of the attackers, Khuram Butt, had in mind. Butt had originally tried to buy a 7.5 ton truck but since the payment was declined, he had to settle for a van.
According to most reports, the 7.5 ton truck would have been close to the size of the truck that had mowed down 86 people in Nice, France in 2016 and it can be safely assumed that the attackers had a far bloodier attack in mind. The truck that they drove into passers-by ended up killing three people. The head of the Counter Terrorism Command at Metropolitan Police said, "When I come back to Butt trying getting hold of a 7.5 ton lorry — the effect could have been even worse,".
Frightening revelations
More often than not, the revelations following a terror attack are particularly revealing and give the general public an idea of the sort of damage that the terrorists could have caused. In the case of the London Bridge attack, the revelation about the truck must make the police far more careful about the purchase of such trucks in the future.
The van that had been used in the attack was seized by the police and some of the items that they recovered indicate that a far more sinister plot might have been afoot. Some of the items include Molotov cocktails in wine bottles as well as blow torches and there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the attackers had planned to kill many more innocent people on that fateful Saturday night.
The head of the Counter Terrorism Command at Metropolitan Polica also stated that the police believe that the attackers had planned to go back into the van for the inflammable missiles following their stabbing frenzy. The fact that the police were able to neutralize them so quickly definitely saved many lives.
