Malaysians in London more vigilant after recent terror attacks

The attack on Saturday was the third to strike Britain in three months after the first attack was carried out on March 22 when a sport utility vehicle mowed down panicked pedestrians and a police officer was stabbed outside Parliament.

Following these horrific events, Malaysians who are in London said they were becoming more vigilant after the attack on Saturday although Londoners had moved on, carrying out their daily activities as usual.

Angel Ting, 26, who is now working in Dublin, Ireland, was in London for two nights from Friday to visit her friend who lives at an apartment near the Tower of London.

When contacted by Bernama today, the marketing specialist for a software company said after the attack, she and her friend would make sure that they were constantly aware of the nearest exit (in public places) and avoid going to crowded tourist spots.

Recalling the night of the incident, Ting said the police were shoving people on the street into her friend's apartment building and she thought they might be locked down in that building until Sunday.

"We got home around 10pm and was making dinner when my roommate in Dublin texted me asking if I was okay and that was how I found out about the attack.

"Chances were we could be impacted by the attack if we were on our way home because my friend lives close to the location of the attack," she said.

Azizi Nawawi, 31, still feels a little bit unsafe until today, especially when walking around in public places like the underground station or when travelling on a bus in the city.

According to him, the magnitude of this recent attack was a lot worse than the attack at Westminster Bridge near Parliament because it involved more casualties and was carried out at two different locations.

"I was at a friend's house, about 15 minutes' walking distance from London Bridge, when it happened. We found out about it immediately through a breaking news update on the Sky News app.

"Shortly after that, we saw ambulances and police cars rushing to the scene with the sound of sirens filling the air that night while helicopters were hovering overhead for two to three hours," recalled the PhD candidate in Chemistry at Imperial College London.

While it was revealed that the perpetrators were British Muslims, Azizi said people in London still treated the rest of the Muslims there equally and he had not heard any racist remarks thrown at Muslims after the attack.

Nuradilah Azil, 26, a law graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science remembered feeling scared because she and her fiancé had to go home using a different route that night.

"When I reached the underground station, I saw people starting to panic. I got onto the tube and I heard an announcement saying that the station next to where I live (Bank Underground Station), was on lockdown. So my fiancé and I decided to go home using the alternative route.

"But when we got on a different tube line, we were told that all trains were stopping. So I think people started to get scared because they could not go home. Uber was full and bus routes were being redirected.

"So it was chaotic. When I finally arrived around the street near where I'm staying, people were running frantically and that made me feel very uncomfortable," she said.

Nuradilah said she did not go out much after the attack, except to buy groceries at a Muslim neighbourhood.

"As a Muslim, I am scared to go out but I don't think people are being particularly aggressive towards Muslims. I think everyone just move on," she added.