NEW YORK - With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.
The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute's silence at the exact moments that Al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.
Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, this year the families of victims have recorded themselves. But they will still be present at the "Ground Zero" memorial.
The site museum will also open for the first time since the novel coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March.
Almost two decades after the attacks, September 11 remains synonymous with New York's heroism and resilience.
City leaders have emphasized the latter in the past months as the COVID-19 infection rate -- which killed 23,00 people here, the early epicenter of the disease in the United States -- has been lowered to under one percent.
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reminded New Yorkers that their resilience is likely to be tested once again by the social and economic "after-effects" of the pandemic.
- Offices empty until 2021? -
Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, recognizes that the island renowned for its hustle and energy now faces an array of problems.
Some of these stem directly from the coronavirus pandemic: almost all the white collar workers, such as bankers, traders and insurance employees, have been working from home since March. This has emptied Manhattan's business hubs, leaving thousands of small stores and restaurants without customers.
Boris Tulchinskiy, a 26-year-old software engineer, misses Manhattan but expects to "keep working from home" in neighboring New Jersey until July 2021.
If the more than 60 million tourists who visit New York every year have gone, so too have New Yorkers, fleeing the city by the thousands.
At least 35,000 people have moved out of Manhattan, judging by requests for absentee ballots for November's presidential elections, Brewer said.
Many businesses are now shuttered: between 2017 and 2020, the number of vacant commercial spaces has almost doubled, up by 78 percent, she said.
Homeless people are now more visible due to the closure of numerous shelters for health reasons, and the transfer of almost 13,000 to live in less contagious conditions in Manhattan's vacant hotels.
The rise in homicides and shootings -- up 47 percent and 166 percent in August, compared with the previous year -- is one of the more striking aspects of the crisis hitting the city.
Even if it is still far below the endemic levels of crime that plagued the city in the 1970s and 80s, New York, which prided itself on being one of the world's safest cities, has now slipped back to 2012 crime levels, the New York Times reported.
- Trump wants to 'kill New York' -
"I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from people especially in New York City, who are literally worried about the degradation of New York City," governor Cuomo said Tuesday.
Even as the city shows signs of revival -- which include museums reopening in late August and restaurants welcoming diners inside in late September -- its full recovery could take up to three years, Brewer said, citing the estimates of realtors.
In the meantime, and less than two months from one of the most bitterly fought presidential contests in history, the crisis has become the focus of a dispute with Republican President Donald Trump.
The native New Yorker, who made his name in real estate, insists that the rise in crime in the Democratic bastion is due to the incompetence of its leaders. On Tuesday, he once again accused the mayor and the governor of "destroying" the city.
New York officials in turn slammed Trump's refusal to free up billions in emergency federal funds to help the city through the worst of the crisis.
"Trump is actively trying to kill New York City. It is personal. I think it's psychological," Cuomo said. "He is trying to kill New York City."
Agence France-Presse
LONDON—A man wearing a suspected hoax explosive device was shot dead by armed officers on London Bridge on Friday after what police said was a terrorist stabbing spree, reviving memories of another horrific attack 2 years ago that killed 8.
Footage on Twitter filmed by eyewitnesses showed a scrum of people tackling a man on the ground before specialist armed officers arrived and shot him dead as he tried to get up.
It is not known how many people were injured in the stabbing spree before the shooting but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said several people were "seriously" hurt.
Khan said members of the public risked their own safety to try to disarm the suspect. "They are the best of us," he told reporters.
The events came less than 2 weeks before an election at which Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to win a majority to enable him to take Britain out of the European Union.
The prime minister cut short a visit to his constituency in northwest London to return to his Downing Street office for a briefing by the police.
'Enough is enough,' PM May says after London attackers kill 7
Both Johnson's Conservatives and the main opposition Labour party have both pledged to put at least 20,000 more officers on the streets.
But Britain's impending Brexit has raised questions about the extent of continued cooperation with Europe on security and intelligence matters.
New European Council President Charles Michel said he had been "very saddened to hear the dramatic reports" from London, adding: "The fight against terrorism is a common fight."
Johnson praised the emergency services for their response, adding: "This country will never be cowed or divided or intimidated by this sort of attack.
"Our values, our British values will prevail."
MOTIVE UNKNOWN
The attack happened on so-called "Black Friday," one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the run-up to Christmas, bringing more shoppers onto the streets.
The Metropolitan Police said it was called at 1:58 pm (9:58 p.m. Manila time) to a stabbing near the bridge, which links The City financial district to the south bank of the River Thames.
"A male suspect was shot by specialist armed officers," Neil Basu, the head of UK counter-terrorism policing, told reporters outside New Scotland Yard police headquarters.
"This suspect died at the scene. It has been declared a terrorist incident. We retain an open mind as to any motive.
"We believe a device that was strapped to the body of the suspect was a hoax explosive device."
Several people were seen in video footage apparently surrounding the man on the ground.
One man, wearing a suit and tie, was seen retreating from the scene, with what appeared to be a large knife in his right hand.
Three armed officers then appeared on the scene and surrounded the scrum. One officer pulled a man away before 2 shots appeared to be fired.
An eyewitness told reporters: "He was on the ground with a knife near him, and a bag near him and then they surrounded him and armed police shot him."
Another told the BBC she and other people in the area rushed into a nearby restaurant and were told by staff to take cover under tables.
The bridge was closed off, with evacuated buses at a standstill, and a white truck straddling the carriageways. Forensics officers were at the scene.
Johnson thanked the police and all emergency services "for their immediate response."
A White House spokesman said US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the attack and was monitoring the situation.
Trump, who has previously criticized Mayor Khan and stabbings in the British capital, is due to visit next week for a NATO summit.
THREAT LEVEL DOWNGRADED
Britain downgraded its terrorism threat level from "severe," the second-highest of 5 levels, to "substantial" on Nov. 4, its lowest rating in more than 5 years.
British officials consider a terrorist attack "likely" when the threat level is substantial, and "highly likely" when it is severe.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, an organization made up of government departments and other public bodies, makes the decision after weighing up intelligence and information on known terror groups.
The 2017 attack involved Islamist extremists in a van who ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking people at random with knives in nearby Borough Market.
Eight people were killed and 48 others injured. The 3 attackers, who were wearing fake suicide devices, were shot dead by police.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001 when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked.
Fifteen years after the attacks that day, Febrillet, by then a mother of three, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The likely cause: a cloud of toxic ash that engulfed her.
"I was there (on) 9/11... For years I have been working down there every day since 9/11. We were never told that something could happen," she says.
Unlike Febrillet, Richard Fahrer, then 19, wasn't in the area on 9/11, but he regularly worked as a land surveyor between 2001 and 2003 in south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers came crashing down.
Eighteen months ago, the young father, now 37, was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer -- a disease that usually affects older men and which there is no history of in his family.
Febrillet and Fahrer represent a growing category of patient who were living or working close to the World Trade Center in the wake of the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.
They were not among the thousands of emergency personnel who rushed to the site or who spent months clearing debris at Ground Zero, but their health is being similarly affected.
As the 18th anniversary of the attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks.
'PEOPLE ARE DYING'
The 9/11 attacks released unprecedented amounts of chemicals into the air, including dioxins, asbestos and other carcinogenic substances.
Firefighters, other first responders and volunteers who helped with the months-long clean-up were the first to be affected. Studies found they faced an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Ten thousand of them have been diagnosed with cancer by the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal treatment program helping survivors.
At the end of June this year, 21,000 people not considered first responders were also in the program -- twice as many as in June 2016. Of these, almost 4,000 have cancer, the most common being prostate, breast and skin.
Febrillet, now 44, is one of them. She recalls that the message at the time was to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible.
"People were just going about their business a few days later. But look at what happened a few years later, people are dying," says Febrillet, who also lived close to Ground Zero.
Fahrer, too, laments that city officials did not do more to protect residents and office staff in the vicinity.
"My wife asks me, 'Did terrorists cause your cancer?' I can't say 100 percent, but I do know there could have been better efforts to limit the exposure of healthy adults from entering into the disaster area," he says.
COMPENSATION FUND
Health experts say it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the cause of cancer in every patient, but note that there is a clear correlation between the rate and exposure to toxic debris.
Several studies have shown that the cancer rate "has increased between 10 and 30 percent" among people who were exposed compared to those who weren't, David Prezant, New York fire department chief medical officer, told AFP.
The rate is expected to increase further, he said, as exposed people get older. The risk of cancer increases with age and some cancers, including lung, can take 20 to 30 years to develop, Prezant added.
It is because of this that President Donald Trump signed a bill in July that extends a deadline for victims to file claims for compensation from December 2020 to 2090.
The Victim Compensation Fund will be regularly topped up after exhausting its initial budget of $7.3 billion. The average compensation per patient is $240,000, or $682,000 for a deceased person.
Lawyer Matthew Baione, who represents Fahrer and Febrillet in their pursuit of claims, said the extension recognized that it was appropriate to cover someone "who was a baby during the attacks for the rest of their life."
"We have lost so many people, so many friends are sick," says Febrillet
"You get to a point where you are not asking, 'Have you seen so and so, I wonder how she is doing, is she retired?'
"Instead you are asking, 'So how is the surgery, how is the treatment going?' We are so young, this shouldn't be happening."
cat/pdh/wd
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON - Leaders and organizations around the world expressed disgust and sorrow at the killing of 49 people in shootings at 2 New Zealand mosques on Friday, attacks that many blamed on the demonization of Muslims by the West.
Western leaders from Donald Trump to Angela Merkel expressed solidarity with New Zealanders, deploring what the White House called a "vicious act of hate."
The response from some Muslim countries went further, blaming politicians and the media for stoking that hatred. The nationalities of the victims included Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, Indonesian, Egyptian, Bangladeshi, Saudi, Somalian and Turkish, authorities said.
New Zealand police said 49 people were killed and 42 were being treated for wounds, including a 4-year-old child. Three people were in custody including one man who has been charged with murder, police said.
"I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia post-9/11 (where) 1.3 billion Muslims have collectively been blamed for any act of terror," Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote on social media.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the attack was a result of Muslims being demonized.
"Not only the perpetrators, but also politicians & media that fuel the already escalated Islamophobia and hate in the West are equally responsible for this heinous attack," he tweeted.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated "the urgency of working better together globally to counter Islamophobia and eliminate intolerance and violent extremism in all its forms," a spokesman said.
Hundreds of protesters in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, chanted "Allahu akbar!" (God is Greatest) after Friday prayers.
"We will not let the blood of Muslims go in vain," said one protester.
Members of the Bangladesh national cricket team, in Christchurch for a match against New Zealand, arrived for Friday prayers as the shooting started but were not hurt.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said some of the victims may have been new immigrants or refugees.
"They are us," she said. "The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not. They have no place in New Zealand."
Trump, following a phone call with Ardern, said on Twitter: "...I informed the Prime Minister... that we stand in solidarity with New Zealand - and that any assistance the U.S.A. can give, we stand by ready to help. We love you New Zealand!"
The accused gunman's manifesto posted online praised Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose."
Asked by a reporter if he thought white nationalism is a rising threat around the world, Trump said: "I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. I guess if you look at what happened in New Zealand perhaps that's a case, I don't know enough about it yet."
Trump said he had not seen the gunman's manifesto.
'EXTREMIST'
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said an Australian national arrested after the attack was an "extremist, right-wing violent terrorist."
Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who is New Zealand's head of state, said she was "deeply saddened by the appalling events."
Pope Francis deplored the "senseless acts of violence."
In a message of condolence sent by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis "assures all New Zealanders, and in particular the Muslim community, of his heartfelt solidarity in the wake of these attacks".
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest Muslim body, to discuss this "horrible crime", Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
"Western hypocrisy of defending demonisation of Muslims as 'freedom of expression' MUST end," Zarif said on Twitter. He posted a picture of US President Donald Trump saying "I think Islam hates us," during the 2016 US election campaign.
The Palestinian chief peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, called the attack a "consequence of racist ideologies that continue trying to promote religious wars".
He compared it to the shooting last October at a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh that killed 11 people, deadly attacks on churches in Egypt by Islamic State and an attack by a far-right Israeli gunman on a West Bank mosque in 1994 that killed 29 people.
A statement by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been accused by the United States of terrorism, said in part: "Hezbollah warns against the tendency of extremism against Muslims and foreigners and against the politics of hate that the United States nourishes in the world, rather than religious values that advocate tolerance, dialogue and acceptance of the other."
'FLAMES OF HATRED'
German Chancellor Merkel mourned "with the New Zealanders for their fellow citizens who were attacked and murdered out of racist hatred while peacefully praying in their mosques."
Her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: "When people are murdered solely because of their religion, this is an attack on us all."
Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, said Londoners stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Christchurch. He also pointed his finger at those who promote religious hatred.
"When the flames of hatred are fanned, when people are demonised because of their faith, when people's fears are played on rather than addressed, the consequences are deadly, as we have seen so sadly today," he said.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the attack brought back memories of the 2011 attack by anti-Muslim extremist Anders Breivik that killed 77 people: "It shows that extremism is nurtured and that it lives in many places."
Al-Azhar University, Egypt's 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islamic learning, called the attack "a dangerous indicator of the dire consequences of escalating hate speech, xenophobia and the spread of Islamophobia."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MOSCOW - Thirteen people were killed and 50 more wounded on Wednesday, most of them teenagers, after a blast tore into a college canteen in Russian-annexed Crimea in what Moscow called a "terrorist" attack.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major incidents, said it had "opened a criminal case into a terrorist attack" after an "unidentified explosive device" went off in the polytechnical college in Kerch city.
A committee spokeswoman said the death toll had risen to 13 after initial reports 10 people were killed in the explosion that detonated at around noon.
Investigators said the explosive device went off in the college's canteen and that it was "packed with metal objects."
"Currently we know of 13 dead and around 50 injured," Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in televised comments.
The "most of the (victims) are teenagers," the committee said. The college's website says it accepts students in the last three grades of school, from the age of 14.
An unnamed witness who worked nearby said in a video on Kerch.tv website victims "were taken away in public transport, in minibuses and buses, with 2 or 3 people in each ambulance."
"They are children and staff," the witness said. "I saw people without legs, without arms."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the "tragic news" from Kerch and that he "expresses deep condolences to those who lost relatives and loved ones."
Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said on Facebook he had gone to the scene and "all the necessary services are working at the scene of the incident."
The emergency services ministry said that it had flown out three helicopters and a plane with rescuers.
Kerch is linked to the Russian mainland by a bridge opened by Putin in May this year.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
VALENCIA, Venezuela - Venezuela's military said Sunday it repelled a "terrorist" attack on a base in the city of Valencia, led by an army deserter allegedly linked to "foreign governments."
Two of the attackers were killed and eight were captured, President Nicolas Maduro said on state television, claiming the group of "mercenaries" -- whose total number he put at around 20 -- had ties to Colombia and the United States.
Officials insisted afterward that all was normal across the country.
Still, the incident heightened fears that Venezuela's deepening political and economic crisis could explode into greater violence.
In Valencia, a major northwestern city, military helicopters flew overhead as tactical armored vehicles patrolled the streets in a climate of tension.
Locals said a nighttime curfew had been imposed, as flaming barricades set up in the street by anti-government protesters spewed black smoke.
The armed forces said in a statement "a group of civilian criminals wearing military uniforms and a first lieutenant who had deserted" carried out the attack, during which a number of weapons were stolen.
The lieutenant and several of the attackers were arrested but "an intense search" was on for the others who made off with the arms, the military said.
Maduro said the captured lieutenant was "actively giving information and we have testimony from seven of the civilians."
MADURO 'DICTATORSHIP'
Maduro congratulated the army for its "immediate reaction" in putting down the attack, saying they earned his "admiration."
Venezuela has become increasingly isolated internationally as Maduro has tightened his hold on power through a contested loyalist assembly that started work this week.
The opposition, which controls the legislature, has been sidelined. Its leaders are under threat of arrest after organizing protests, fiercely countered by security forces, that have left 125 people dead in the past four months.
One prominent leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was returned to house arrest after being hauled off to military prison four days ago.
The new Constituent Assembly, packed with Maduro allies including the president's wife and son, has quickly used its supreme powers to clamp down on dissent.
On Saturday, it ordered the dismissal of the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, who had broken ranks with Maduro to become one of his most vociferous critics.
On Sunday it announced -- then suspended -- the creation of a "truth commission" sought by Maduro to probe alleged crimes by the opposition.
The United States accuses Maduro of installing an "authoritarian dictatorship" that has turned Venezuela into an international pariah.
The United States, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru have slammed the "illegal" sacking of Ortega.
And Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil have indefinitely suspended Venezuela from the South American trading bloc Mercosur for its "rupture of the democratic order."
LOYAL MILITARY CHIEFS
"Each step by the Constituent Assembly is a step towards the precipice by this government," the leader of the opposition parliament, Julio Borges, told a news conference in Caracas on Sunday.
"The only thing it has left is brute force... The only thing it wants is to cling to power," he said, calling for more protests.
The opposition has repeatedly urged the military to abandon Maduro.
But Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, the head of the armed forces, has said the military's loyalty was unshakable.
After Sunday's attack in Valencia, Padrino tweeted that the assailants "couldn't do anything against" the army.
"They try to assault it with terrorist attacks. They can't," he said.
In a video posted online just before the attack, a man presenting himself as an army captain declared a "legitimate rebellion... to reject the murderous tyranny of Nicolas Maduro."
Speaking with 15 other men dressed in camouflage standing by him, some of them armed, he demanded a transitional government and "free elections."
It was not known if he was the lieutenant referred to in the military statement.
That statement said the officer had deserted three years ago and taken refuge in Miami, in the US state of Florida.
The deputy leader of Maduro's Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello, tweeted that there was "absolute normality in the other military units in the country."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA – American singer Ariana Grande apologized to her fans after an explosion marred her concert in Manchester, England on Monday night (Tuesday morning in Manila).
In a post on Twitter, Grande wrote: “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words.”
At least 19 people were killed and 50 others wounded in what Greater Manchester Police described as a "terrorist incident."
Immediately after the blast, a spokesman for Grande, 23, said the singer was "okay."
Grande’s concert was held at the Manchester Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, is a popular concert and sporting venue. it has a capacity for 21,000 people, according to its website.
Britain is now on its second-highest alert level of "severe" meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.
– with reports from Rose Eclarinal, ABS-CBN News, and Reuters
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS - A French policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in a shooting in central Paris on Thursday night before the gunman himself was killed by officers, police and the Interior Ministry said.
The Islamic State group claimed the shooting, days before French presidential elections, via its Amaq news agency, naming the attacker as Abu Yousif the Belgian. President Francois Hollande said he was convinced it was a terrorist attack.
A second suspect who might have been involved in the incident on the Champs Elysees shopping boulevard may still be on the loose, authorities said. The famous wide street that leads away from the Arc de Triomphe that had earlier been crowded with Parisians and tourists enjoying a spring evening remained closed off hours after the incident.
France has lived under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks, mostly perpetrated by young men who grew up in France and Belgium, and that have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.
Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said it was too early to say what the motive of the attack was, but that it was clear the police officers had been deliberately targeted.
"A little after 9 PM a vehicle stopped alongside a police car which was parked. Immediately a man got out and fired on the police vehicle, mortally wounding a police officer," Brandet said.
Officers at the scene said they were searching for a potential second assailant, and Brandet said it could not be ruled out that there was another or others involved.
Officers also conducted a search at the home in eastern Paris of the dead attacker.
"I came out of the Sephora shop and I was walking along the pavement.... A man got out of a car and opened fire with a kalashnikov on a policeman," witness Chelloug, a kitchen assistant, told Reuters.
"The policeman fell down. I heard six shots, I was afraid. I have a two year-old girl and I thought I was going to die... He shot straight at the police officer."
POLICE CLEAR THE AREA
Police authorities called on the public to avoid the area.
TV footage showed the Arc de Triomphe monument and the top half of the Champs Elysees packed with police vans, lights flashing and heavily armed police shutting the area down after what was described by one journalist as a major exchange of fire near a Marks and Spencers store.
The incident came as French voters prepared go to the polls on Sunday in the most tightly-contested presidential election in living memory.
"We shall be of the utmost vigilance, especially in relation to the election," said President Francois Hollande, who is not himself running for re-election.
Earlier this week, two men were arrested in Marseille who police said had been planning an attack ahead of the election.
That incident brought issues of security and immigration back to the forefront of the campaign, with the anti-immigration National Front leader Marine Le Pen repeating her call for Europe's partly open borders to be closed.
A machine gun, two hand guns and three kilos of TATP explosive were among the weapons found at a flat in the southern city along with jihadist propaganda materials according to the Paris prosecutor.
Candidates in the election said they had been warned about the Marseille attackers. Francois Fillon, who is the conservative candidate, said he would cancel the campaign events he had been planning for Friday. In November, 2015, Paris was rocked by near simultaneous gun-and-bomb attacks on entertainment sites, in which 130 people died and 368 were wounded. Islamic State claimed responsibility. Two of the 10 known perpetrators were Belgian citizens and three others were French.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A truck plowed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing three people and wounding eight in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
Swedish police said no-one had been arrested in connection with the attack. They showed a picture of a man wearing a grey hoodie and said they were looking for him. They did not rule out the possibility that other attackers were involved.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"I turned around and saw a big truck coming towards me. It swerved from side to side. It didn't look out of control, it was trying to hit people," Glen Foran, an Australian tourist in his 40s, told Reuters.
"It hit people, it was terrible. It hit a pram with a kid in it, demolished it," he said.
"It took a long time for police to get here. I suppose from their view it was quick, but it felt like forever."
Part of central Stockholm was cordoned off and the area was evacuated, including the main train station. All subway traffic was halted on police orders. Government offices were closed.
"Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to the fact that this is a terrorist attack," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters during a visit in western Sweden. He was immediately returning to the capital.
Many police and emergency services personnel were at the scene, said a Reuters witness who saw policemen put what appeared to be two bodies in body bags. Bloody tyre tracks on Drottninggatan (Queen Street) showed where the beer truck had passed.
The truck had been stolen while making a delivery to a restaurant further up Drottninggatan, Spendrups Brewery spokesman Marten Lyth said. A masked person jumped into the cab, started the truck and drove away.
"We were standing by the traffic lights at Drottninggatan and then we heard some screaming and saw a truck coming," a witness who declined to be named told Reuters.
"Then it drove into a pillar at Ahlens City (department store) where the hood started burning. When it stopped we saw a man lying under the tyre. It was terrible to see," said the man, who saw the incident from his car.
Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken place in Europe in the past year. Al Qaeda in 2010 urged its followers to use trucks as a weapon.
In London on March 22, a man in a car ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four, and then stabbed a policeman to death before being shot by police.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Nice, France, last July, when a truck killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day, and one in Berlin in December, when a truck smashed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
Radio Sweden reporter Martin Svenningsen said he saw three dead people on Friday "but probably more". Police confirmed three deaths and eight people injured.
"Our thoughts are going out to those that were affected, and to their families," Sweden's King Carl Gustaf said in a statement.
The attack was the latest to hit the Nordic region after the 2015 shootings in Copenhagen, Denmark, that killed three people and the 2011 bombing and shooting by far right extremist Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 people in Norway.
Sweden has not been hit by a large-scale attack, although in December 2010, a man blew himself up only a few hundred yards from the site of the latest incident in a failed suicide attack.
Swedish authorities raised the national security threat level to four on a scale of five in October 2010 but lowered the level to three, indicating a "raised threat", in March 2016.
Police in Norway's largest cities and at Oslo's airport will carry weapons until further notice following the attack. Denmark has been on high alert since the February 2015 shootings.
"An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all," European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels.
"One of Europe's most vibrant and colourful cities appears to have been struck by those wishing it -- and our very way of life -- harm.
Neutral Sweden has not fought a war in more than 200 years, but its military has taken part in U.N peacekeeping missions in a number of conflict zones in recent years, including Iraq, Mali and Afghanistan.
The Sapo security police said in its annual report it was impossible to say how big a risk there was that Sweden would be targeted like other European cities, but that, if so "it is most likely that it would be undertaken by a lone attacker".
source: news.abs-cbn.com
