Timeline of recent terror attacks

The London Bridge incident has chilling echoes with one of the worst terror attacks in recent years, when three armed men drove at pedestrians on the bridge before running amok in nearby Borough Market.

The previous attack, on June 3 2017, left eight people dead and 48 others injured before the attackers, Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were shot dead by police.

2017 was one of the bloodiest years for terrorism in the UK in recent times.

On March 22 2017 five people were killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster.

Khalid Masood drove a hire car over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians before crashing into railings outside the Palace of Westminster.

He stabbed Pc Keith Palmer, 48, to death. Also killed in the atrocity were US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, and Britons Aysha Frade, 44, and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes. Masood was shot dead by police.

One of the UK’s most deadly terrorist attacks occurred on May 22 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a suicide belt at the Manchester Arena.

The attack took place as a crowd of music fans left an Ariana Grande concert at the venue, leaving 22 people, including seven children, dead.

A further 260 people were seriously injured.

On June 19 2017, one man died and several others were injured when Darren Osborne, 47, rammed his van into worshippers near a mosque in Finsbury Park, north London.

Osborne, of no fixed address in Cardiff, was jailed for at least 43 years after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder.

More than 50 people were injured when a device partially exploded on a District line train at Parsons Green on September 15 2017.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, was jailed for at least 34 years for planting the bomb.

On New Year’s Eve last year a couple in their 50s suffered multiple stab wounds after being attacked at Manchester’s Victoria Station.

Mahdi Mohamud, who also attacked a police officer, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 11 years earlier this week after he pleaded guilty to one terror offence and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the  station attack.

In October this year a lone knifeman brought terror to central Manchester after rampaging through a shopping centre lashing out at members of the public.

The man arrested after the incident on October 11, which left three people needing hospital treatment, was later detained under the Mental Health Act and police said it was thought he had acted alone.

Weeks after that incident, the terror threat level was lowered to “substantial” from “severe”, meaning attacks were thought to be “likely” rather than “highly likely”.

That decision is likely to be reviewed in the wake of the latest London Bridge incident.