London Bridge attack: Survivor came nose-to-nose with terrorist, inquest told

‘I thought it was an accident, something happened to the driver,’ Richard Livett says

A survivor of the London Bridge terror attacks has described the moment he was stabbed, as he stood “nose to nose” with one of the perpetrators.

Richard Livett told the inquest he had been watching football in the capital with his brother-in-law before three men launched a van and knife rampage on London Bridge and Borough Market on 3 June 2017.

He dove out of the path of the attackers’ hire van, which smashed into railings in the area, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Livett first thought he was witnessing a traffic collision and went to help the van’s driver.

“I thought it was an accident, something happened to the driver,” he said.

“I did not know it was a terrorist attack. My recollection is, I even moved towards the van.

“The next sight was a man running straight up right into my face and screamed Allahu Akbar.

“It happened within a second, a split second, of my turning round.

“I just saw a dark face with a beard and his face was literally an inch or so off, nose to nose.”

Mr Livett was then stabbed by the man, who he now believes to be Khuram Butt, the terrorists’ ringleader.

”I felt what I thought initially was a punch in the back, which turned out to be him flailing his arm around the back of me and stabbing me,” he said.

“I appreciated it very soon afterwards. I just felt the impact initially then withdrawing the knife downwards and I realised what had happened.”

He said he slumped to the ground and then got up and moved away: “It was chaos all around. I was aware of screaming and shouting and people around me.

“I think it was a personal mission to get help as quickly as I possibly could. I realised it was quite a serious blow I had taken.”

Mr Livett described how he began to feel weak and knocked on the door of the Globe Tavern.

The building was on lock-down and the 53-year-old eventually collapsed outside.

A solder and a doctor came out of the building and helped him.

“After a time I was aware that we were told to stay in that place for a period of time and the special forces guys came past and let some rounds off right by us, and we still had to stay there for a while until the area was cleared,” Mr Livett said.

The businessman told the inquest he believed he was one of the first victims to be stabbed.

“I think [the attackers] were probably in a real heightened state,” he said.

“They moved away very quickly.”

Mr Livett was later helped back towards the bridge and received medical attention.

“I saw there were people in the middle of the road against the rails being tended to,” he said.

“Emergency services were present at that time as well, so there were blankets."

Eight people were killed during the van and knife rampage and 48 others were injured.

The attackers, Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were shot dead by police less than 10 minutes.

The inquest into the deaths of the eight victims’ continues.

Additional reporting by agencies