"Turn your phone to silent": The chilling warning issued by police during London Bridge terror attack

Londoners weren't yet aware of the attackers had been caught or were still on the run

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ByNicola Oakley

• 08:51, 4 JUN 2017
• Updated09:36, 4 JUN 2017

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Armed police officers rushed to London Bridge (Photo: PA)

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Six people have been killed after three armed men ploughed a van into pedestrians at 50mph on London Bridge late on Saturday night.
They then leapt from the vehicle and began stabbing people in nearby restaurants and bars at random.
While London residents were listening to the news, still wondering if the terrorists had been caught or if they were on the run in the city, Metropolitan Police tweeted out a chilling warning to its followers.
The image showed three large words: "Run, Hide, Tell".
Police ordered people: "You must: RUN - to a place of safety. This is a better option than to surrender or negotiate. If there's nowhere to go, then..."

The warning showed people how severe the situation really was (Photo: @metpoliceuk/Twitter)

"HIDE - Turn your phone to silent and turn off vibrate. Barricade yourself in if you can.
"TELL - the police by calling 999 when it is safe to do so."
The order to turn phones to silent and turn off vibrate - so that nearby attackers could not hear you if you're hiding and relatives are trying to get in touch - particularly seemed to alert people that this was indeed a major incident and more lives were at risk.

okay this is very serious; never seen anything like this before.

— ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤʲºˢʰㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ (@RemedyFX) June 3, 2017

One said the tweet was "essentially telling you that the police cannot help and you basically have to defend for yourself".

This is now becoming normalised. This country is on the brink.

— Luke Hines (@LukeHines) June 3, 2017

Is this what we've been reduced to in our once great country? I feel genuinely sad for our future generations.

— Michael Butterman (@Mick12140) June 3, 2017

The Metropolitan Police's message was shared more than 60,000 times as Londoners tried to warn their neighbours how to be safe.
Horrified witness described three attackers, wearing hoax suicide vests to warn police away from them, brandishing knives at diners in restaurants in the Borough Market area, close to London Bridge.

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It comes less than two weeks after a terror attack in Manchester which killed 22 innocent victims, including children, prompting the government to raise the terror alert threat level from 'severe' to