Police shot dead a man wearing a hoax device in central London after a terrorist attack in which a number of people were stabbed, forcing authorities to put an area on the edge of the UK capital’s financial district on lockdown.

Security was tightened in buildings in the London Bridge area and there was a heavy police presence in the area. The bridge, a busy urban artery that connects the UK capital’s central business district to south London, crosses the River Thames just west of the world-famous Tower Bridge.