From the restaurant manager who blocked a door to keep the attackers out to the football fan stabbed five times as he fought to protect his friends, the courage of those who took on the terrorists is coming to light.
Roy Larner, 47, acted as an unofficial spokesman for all of them when he said: “I did what I had to do.”
Archie Webber-Brown, who has organised a petition for his friend to be awarded the George Cross, wrote online: “Roy Larner charged at the terrorists on London Bridge to try and stop them and help others escape. He ended up getting himself stabbed multiple times, showing great courage.”
Mr Larner, a Millwall fan, described how he took on the three attackers, one of them in an Arsenal shirt, as they shouted “This is for Allah” during their stabbing spree. He said: “Like an idiot I shouted back at them. I thought, ‘I need to take the piss out of these bastards.’ I took a few steps towards them and said, ‘F*** you, I’m Millwall.’ ”
He told The Sun: “I got stabbed and sliced eight times. They got me in my head, chest and both hands. There was blood everywhere. They were saying, ‘Islam, Islam!’ I said again, ‘F*** you, I’m Millwall!’ It was the worst thing I could have done as they carried on attacking me. Luckily, none of the blows were straight at me or I’d be dead.”
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The Spanish manager of a restaurant in Borough Market may have saved several lives when he blocked the door to an attacker as he tried to force his way in. Sergio Fariña, from Pontevedra in Galicia, ushered members of the public into Arthur Hooper’s restaurant then guarded the doorway as the attackers stormed through the market.
Security footage published by Spanish media shows an attacker in a striped top trying to open the door as Mr Fariña pushes back, blocking his path. Moments later the man was shot by police.
Mr Fariña, who has lived in London for 16 years, praised the swiftness of the police response. “In three minutes the terrorists were surrounded by officers prepared for this,” he said, according to the newspaper Diario de Pontevedra.
“When [the attackers] stabbed someone in front of my restaurant is when they opened fire. They didn’t do it before because they saw that they were wearing what looked like dynamite and that we’d be blown apart.”
Mark Kindschuh, 19, from New York, described how he tried to save the life of a passer-by who survived despite being shot in the head as police opened fire.
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Mr Kindschuh, who was in a bar with friends, told the BBC: “All I could see was one man at the front on the ground, with a pool of blood forming, and one individual who I believe was a staff member at the pub, who was down on one knee trying to treat him. He was still conscious and he was speaking.
“I took off my belt and myself and the other man put the belt around his head to apply pressure and stop the bleeding.
“Because it was taking so long to get treatment for him, my biggest fear was that he would expire as a result of blood loss. To hear that that didn’t happen I was obviously overjoyed.”
Malcolm Tunnicliff, clinical director of emergency medicine at King’s College Hospital, told Newsnight on BBC Two: “There were a number of patients who came in with blunt-force trauma after being hit by a vehicle on London Bridge. You can lose a large amount of blood through multiple fractures, so splinting bones in the first instance and then definitive repair work later on is very important.”
The British Red Cross Society, with the support of Sadiq Khan, set up the UK Solidarity Fund, which quickly raised nearly £100,000 from more than 3,500 donors. The money will support people injured, bereaved or traumatised by the attack.