The incident unfolded on Streatham High Road in south London at around 2pm local time on Sunday. The Metropolitan Police quickly declared the attack a terrorist incident and said that at least two people were injured.

The condition of the victims has yet to be revealed but eyewitness accounts paint a grisly picture of another bloody attack in the UK capital just three months after two people were killed on London Bridge.

A witness named Malik, who works on the busy shopping street, said he heard gunshots as he was walking out of a fast food outlet. “I could see blood on the floor everywhere. There was a lady outside of a pharmacy who had been stabbed in the back with a knife, everyone was helping her,” he told The Independent.

Video footage from the scene captured the moments after the attack and the large-scale response from the police and other emergency services.

Another man who was in the vicinity said the attacker was armed with a machete and had some kind of device strapped to his body. “I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer – as they were in civilian clothing,” Gulled Bulhan told the PA news agency.

Recounting the shooting, the 19-year-old Streatham native said he believes he heard three gun shots before running into a nearby library for safety. “From the library I saw a load of ambulances and armed police officers arrive on the scene,” he added.

Details recounted by locals also indicate that the attacker may have been an Islamist terrorist with reports saying he was shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the incident.

Richard Mustonen-Smith, who has lived in the area all his life, said he was shocked that such a crime could take place in Streatham. “I heard two people got stabbed and apparently one man was shouting Allahu Akbar but people thought he was just a crazy man, so he got away. Apparently he had two rucksacks,” the 59-year-old said.

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