When three men armed with a van and knives went on the attack in a bustling area of the British capital on Saturday night, Londoners fought back with whatever came to hand, in some cases hurling chairs and tables to ward them off.

The attack, which saw the assailants kill at least seven people and injure almost 50 before they were shot dead by police, began with a van being driven at high speed into a crowd of pedestrians on London Bridge.

"It looked like he was aiming for groups of people," Mark Roberts, a 53-year-old management consultant, told Reuters. He saw at least six people on the ground after the van veered on and off the pavement.