Man shot in London was wearing hoax bomb device

 Man shot dead on London Bridge on Friday was wearing what police now believe was a hoax explosive device, the UK’s top counter-terrorism officer Neil Basu said.

“Due to reports that the suspect may have had an explosive device, specialist officers also attended the scene, and wide cordons are in place to ensure there remains no further danger to the public,” Basu told reporters.

“However, I can confirm at this time we believe a device that was strapped to the body of the suspect is a hoax explosive device.”

Basu said he was heading to Downing Street to give Prime Minister Boris Johnson a full briefing on the incident.

Earlier, our reporters said that British police were called to a stabbing incident near London Bridge, in which a number of people had been injured and a suspect detained.

“Police were called at 1:58 pm to a stabbing at premisesnear to London Bridge,” the British police said on Twitter.

“A man has been detained by police. We believe a number of people have been injured.”

Al Arabiya correspondent said that London police is treating the stabbing incident as a “terror-related” case as a precaution.

London’s ambulance service said it had declared it a major incident and they had sent several crews to the scene.

In June 2017 eight people were killed and some 48 people were seriously injured when extremists in a van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking people at random.

The three attackers were shot dead by police.