Witnesses to the Islamist attack near London Bridge have told how they fought the terrorists, throwing chairs and glasses, with a taxi driver attempting to “ram” the attackers with his vehicle.

One man, identified as Gerard, is being hailed as a hero after he told the BBC how he tried to save lives and stop the attackers.

“I saw a geezer on the floor saying ‘I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been stabbed’ so I looked at him and he had blood all down him”, he said in a think London accent.

“Then I saw these three Muslim guys come up with knives, they ran up and started stabbing this girl under the train bridge. They attacked her and then they stabbed another guy.

“I was shouting ‘run run run’ and throwing bottles at them, pint glasses. I tried to help as many people as I could but I was defenceless. If I had fallen over they probably would have killed me.

“They stabbed the girl maybe 10 or 15 times,” he explained.

Speaking to LBC, a taxi driver, who did not identify himself, said: “I thought, ‘I’m gonna try and hit him, I’m gonna try and knock him down’.

“I spun the cab round, I was about to ram one of them, but he side-stepped and three police officers came running towards them with their batons drawn.

“I was shouting at everybody, just get away from the area, stay back, just run the other way. There were a good few hundred people out there.”

The driver revealed how the van veered across the road and the occupants jumped out and “started stabbing people randomly”.

He added: “He’s veered across the road towards the right hand of where Southwark Cathedral is and rammed it where the steps are.

“He just rammed it towards them, wedged it in between the lamppost and the steps and so he’s hit people there.

“They’ve jumped out of the van and started stabbing people randomly. There was a scattering of people.”

So far, seven people have been pronounced dead after the attack and more that 40 have been sent to hospitals with injured.

Three men of “Mediterranean” appearance struck pedestrians with a white van before jumping out and stabbing passers-by whilst shouting, “this is for Allah”.