London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan’s rampage left two dead and two women badly injured in five minutes of murderous mayhem, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Police reports compiled by detectives from interviews with 225 witnesses detail the harrowing timeline of events that began when Cambridge graduate Jack Merritt, 25, was stabbed repeatedly in a toilet at Fishmongers’ Hall.
Witnesses described how Khan, a convicted terrorist who was allowed into the conference hall without any security checks being made, launched his attack at 1.57pm on November 29 last year.
Mr Merritt, a course co-ordinator at the Learning Together prison rehabilitation conference, had entered the toilets near the main entrance hall when he was attacked by Khan, who had taped kitchen knives to each hand.
HEROIC: Darryn Frost and John Crilly fight Khan with a narwhal tusk and fire extinguisher
The graduate was stabbed repeatedly by Khan, who had also hidden a fake but ‘convincing’ suicide vest under his jacket. Witnesses told police his victim’s screams could be heard throughout the building.
Khan then rushed from the lavatories toward a female member of staff. He warned her to be silent but did not attack her. Instead, he launched a vicious assault on Saskia Jones, 23, another Cambridge graduate, who was standing nearby.
Despite her wounds, Ms Jones managed to struggle free from Khan and ran screaming towards a staircase, where she collapsed as staff ran to offer first aid.
Meanwhile, Mr Merritt had managed to stagger out of the toilets to the entrance hall, where horrified staff took him into the reception office. Emergency services were alerted by a 999 call at 1.59pm.
KILLED: Victim Saskia Jones, who died in the London Bridge terror attack at the age of 23
Khan, 28, then targeted another woman, whose identity has not been revealed. As he began slashing at her, the victim managed to get away by running up a flight of stairs. Afterwards, Khan moved to the building’s entrance hall where he stabbed another woman.
She was saved by Learning Together staff and other conference attendees who grabbed chairs, a pole, a fire extinguisher and a narwhal tusk from a wall display to tackle Khan.
Meeting a determined fightback, the terrorist tried to flee the Grade II-listed Hall by threatening to stab a maintenance engineer before forcing him to open the front door with his security fob.
Running out on to London Bridge Road, Khan was pursued by three men – former convicts John Crilly, 48, and Steve Gallant, 43, along with civil servant Darryn Frost, 38 – who had armed themselves with a fire extinguisher and the narwhal tusk. Heroically, they fought Khan to the ground.
It was then, when armed officers from City of London Police arrived on the scene and spotted the suicide vest, that the first shot rang out. As Khan attempted to get up, Scotland Yard officers delivered, seconds later, the fatal shot, timed at 2.02pm.
The police report details how, despite efforts by paramedics, Ms Jones, from Stratford-upon-Avon, could not be saved. She died of her injuries at 2.25pm. Mr Merritt, from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, died at 3.14pm. Both had worked as mentors to Khan.
Police sources said that the upcoming inquests into their deaths – and that of Khan – will closely examine how the extremist was allowed to take a bag containing three kitchen knives into Fishmongers’ Hall and why no metal detectors were in use at the venue.
The event had begun with brunch at 11am served on the first floor, followed by an introductory session in the Banqueting Hall at noon. Documents reveal Khan had attended a creative writing lesson which finished at 1.45pm.
The inquests are also likely to raise questions relating to the release of Khan from prison halfway through a 16-year sentence for plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange and attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.