Police carry out controlled explosion near London's US embassy

Specialist officers attend the scene in Wandsworth

Police have carried out a controlled explosion near the new US embassy in south-west London after being alerted to two unattended vehicles .

Specialist officers attended the scene on Pontin Road, Wandsworth, along with ambulance and fire service vehicles and cordons have been put in place.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy said no diplomats were on the construction site of the new building after controlled explosion.

One of the vehicles belonged to Taus Larsen, 40, who said he was "surprised" to find that the front passenger side window has been smashed and the back door has been crow-barred.

He said: "In hindsight maybe it wasn't ideal to have left it here for so long. But there wasn't any lines.

"I only live around the corner, I Just came back to check up on it. I came here on my bike and thought someone had robbed it.

"I thought the commotions had been because there had been a break-in. It turned out the police had broken in or crow-barred the window, or try to crowbar the back door open."

Mr Larsen had parked the car on the street on Monday.

Scotland Yard later tweeted: "This was not terrorism related."

The explosions came within days of the London Bridge terror attack, which claimed the lives of eight people and injured 48.

The most recent victim to be named was the 45-year-old ​French national Xavier Thomas who is thought to have been struck by the terrorists’ van on the bridge. Witnesses reported him being thrown into the water.

His body was recovered near Limehouse, downstream of London Bridge by specialist officers from the marine police unit.

Le Parisien named the second Frenchman to die in the attack as 36-year-old Sebastian Belanger.

The siblings of a 39-year-old banker also said their brother was one of the eight people killed in the attack.

​Ignacio Echeverria was last seen lying on the ground near London Bridge after he confronted the assailants with a skateboard.

James McMullan, 32, from Hackney, Canadian citizen Christine Archibald, 30, Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, and Alexandre Pigeard, 27, have already been named among the dead, along with Australian nanny, Sara Zelenak.

On Tuesday the third attacker was named as Youssef Zaghba, an Italian national of Moroccan descent, who was living in east London.

Zaghba, Pakistan-born British citizen Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, and Rachid Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan were also shot by police at the scene.