BBC Journalist Holly Jones has described the horror of the weekend’s London terror attacks after a van carrying the three perpetrators mowed down pedestrians around her, missing her by only a meter or two.
“The van was zig-zagging along the pavement, and it looked like it was aiming – from my opinion – it was aiming for groups of people,” Ms Jones said on BBC TV.
The van hit two people five meters in front of her, she said, describing the chaotic scene.
“I don’t know how I did it, or what I did, but I got out of the way,” Mr Jones said.
“I remember moving, watching the van drive into the people that were behind me.”
She remembers a focused and “demented” look on the driver’s face, and the piercing screams of victims.
“I’ve never heard fear like it,” she said.
After the van had passed, she says she saw a scene of “indescribable” carnage.
Seven people died in the attack which left 48 injured, with attackers going on to stab people in restaurants nearby.
They were shot dead by police eight minutes after the first emergency call was made.
Once the van had passed, Ms Jones ran to the assistance of an injured French-speaking woman who was frantically trying to find out what had happened to her boyfriend.
“I did whatever anyone else would have done in my situation,” Ms Jones said.
“I’m happy that I was there to help.”
Ms Jones was one of the first to call the emergency services, and has been interviewed by police.
Her message to Londoners is not to be scared, not to be angry and to stand together in defiance.
“I am just so grateful and thankful for everything I have, just so, so lucky,” she said.
“I will never take my life for granted.”
