Next terror stop for London: Stockwell

‘‘I’ve never seen anything like it…I saw them kill a man basically. I saw them shoot a man five times,’’ witness Mark Whitby told the BBC.

Just after 10 a.m. local time, about a dozen armed policemen—many in plain clothes—charged into Stockwell station, witnesses said. Passengers then emerged into the street in panic.

Commuter Teri Godly told Sky TV she heard six or seven shots as she fled the station.

‘‘As I was about to get onto the train, eight or nine undercover police with walkie talkies and handguns started screaming at everyone to ‘get out, get out’,’’ Godly said.

Witnesses gave sketchy details of the man who some said was of South Asian appearance. Some passengers said he looked wary as he stumbled onto the train. He was described as thin by some, chubby by others.

He wore a bulky black coat in the heat of summer, raising suspicion. Most agreed he wore a backpack—reminding many of images of the four bombers behind the July 7 attacks.

‘‘I was about to go in when I saw a lot of people coming out. They looked shocked … The guy I spoke to said, ‘I’ve just seen someone shot’,’’said Andrew Wajnowski (18), a kitchen hand.

Danny Prescott (33), a bus driver whose bus was stopped at the station summed up a feeling of fear spreading across London. ‘‘All we saw is police coming from everywhere,’’ he said.

‘‘It does make you really scared, but you’ve got to carry on. You can see passengers are more nervous as they get on the bus, they glance at people with bags and I am always looking at peoples’ bags.”

— Reuters