LONDON: The London Bridge attackers wore fake suicide belts to create “maximum fear” as they carried out their rampage, police said Sunday.
The Metropolitan Police released photographs of the blood-splattered belts, which were made from plastic water bottles wrapped in duct tape.
Attackers Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba wore the belts when they mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge then stabbed people in nearby Borough Market on June 3. They killed eight people before being shot dead by police.
Police Commander Dean Haydon said the attackers may have worn the belts because they planned to take hostages, “or it might be that they saw it as protection from being shot themselves.”
Geoff Ho, a Sunday Express journalist who was stabbed and injured in the attack, described in the newspaper how he tried to stop the attackers entering a bar packed with people. Ho said “their eyes were full of rage,” and he feared they were about to blow themselves up.
“I couldn’t just attack,” he wrote. “If I charged at them, maybe I could take out one or two. But one of those animals could detonate and kill us all.”
Ho was stabbed in the throat by Butt. He credited his martial arts training with being able to fight off the attack enough to avoid being killed.
Police are still appealing for witnesses as they piece together details of the attack.
They say the attackers may have planned even worse carnage. Butt tried to rent a 7.5-ton box truck, but his payment was declined and he rented a smaller van instead.
Police found petrol bombs and blowtorches in the van, which crashed on the bridge.
Police are questioning six men over suspected links to the attackers, Pakistani-born British citizen Butt, Moroccan Redouane, and Zaghba, an Italian national of Moroccan descent.
Photos of London attackers’ fake bomb belts released
Photos of London attackers’ fake bomb belts released
Britain needs ‘AI stress tests’ for financial services, lawmakers say
- Lawmakers urge AI-specific stress tests for financial firms
LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop artificial intelligence from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a cross-party group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from what it called a “wait and see” approach.
In a report on AI in financial services, the Treasury Committee said the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI-specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems.
The committee also called on the FCA to publish detailed guidance by the end of 2026 on how consumer protection rules apply to AI, and on the extent to which senior managers should be expected to understand the systems they oversee.
“Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I do not feel confident that our financial system is prepared if there was a major AI-related incident and that is worrying,” committee chair Meg Hillier said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY CARRIES ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’
A race among banks to adopt agentic AI, which unlike generative AI can make decisions and take autonomous action, runs new risks for retail customers, the FCA told Reuters late last year.
About three-quarters of UK financial firms now use AI. Companies are deploying the technology across core functions, from processing insurance claims to performing credit assessments.
While the report acknowledged the benefits of AI, it warned the technology also carried “significant risks” including opaque credit decisions, the potential exclusion of vulnerable consumers through algorithmic tailoring, fraud, and the spread of unregulated financial advice through AI chatbots.
Experts contributing to the report also highlighted threats to financial stability, pointing to the reliance on a small group of US tech giants for AI and cloud services. Some also noted that AI-driven trading systems may amplify herding behavior in markets, risking a financial crisis in a worst-case scenario.
An FCA spokesperson said the regulator welcomed the focus on AI and would review the report. The regulator has previously indicated it does not favor AI-specific rules due to the pace of technological change.
The BoE did not respond to a request for comment.
Hillier told Reuters that increasingly sophisticated forms of generative AI were influencing financial decisions. “If something has gone wrong in the system, that could have a very big impact on the consumer,” she said.
Separately, Britain’s finance ministry appointed Starling Bank CIO Harriet Rees and Lloyds Banking Group ‘s Rohit Dhawan as “AI Champions” to help steer AI adoption in financial services.
