The number of victims of the London Bridge atrocity has risen to eight after police searching for a missing Frenchman recovered a body from the Thames.

Next of kin of Xavier Thomas, 45, missing since Saturday’s attack, have been informed, though no formal identification has yet taken place, the Metropolitan police said.



Those killed during the London Bridge attack include three French citizens, the French president said.

“We have had confirmation of the new death toll this morning,” Emmanuel Macron said on the steps of the Élysée palace. “As far as French nationals are concerned, there have indeed been three fatalities and eight wounded. We are paying a heavy price in these attacks.”



Six of those confirmed to have died have now been named by relatives.

The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said one of the French citizens who had previously been unaccounted for “has been identified among those who have died”.



French media reports identified him as Sébastien Bélanger, 36, who was reported missing by his girlfriend, Gerda Bennet.



Another French victim, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, who was working in a French restaurant in Borough Market, has also been named by French media as having died.

Thomas, who was in London for the weekend with his girlfriend, is believed to have been thrown into the river Thames after being struck by the speeding van driven along London Bridge in the attack.



The family of Sara Zelenak, 21, an au pair from Brisbane, who had been missing since being separated from friends in the chaos of the attack, has confirmed she is also among the dead.

Another Australian, Kirsty Boden, a 28-year-old nurse, died as she ran to help others during the attack. She worked as a theatre recovery nurse at Guy’s hospital.



“As she ran towards danger, in an effort to help people on the bridge, Kirsty sadly lost her life,” her family said in a statement.

Boden is one of four Australians said to have been caught up in the terror attack.

As the process of identifying victims continues, Spanish authorities are still awaiting news of Ignacio Echeverría. a 39-year-old missing HSBC banker. The Spanish foreign ministry has said they have no update, and are urging the British authorities to speed up the identification process.



The victims

Christine Archibald, 30, a Canadian, and Londoner James McMullan, 32, were the first victims to be named by family members.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christine Archibald and James McMullan Composite: Facebook

On Monday the family of McMullan, who had been on a night out, said they believed he was among the victims. Although his body has not been formally identified, his sister Melanie McMullan said in a statement that his bank card had been found on a body at the scene, and that the family expected official confirmation on Wednesday.

McMullan was described by his sister as “someone who put friends and family above all else”. She insisted that the family would not be drawn into hatred by the atrocity. “While our pain will never diminish, it is important for us to carry on with our lives in direct opposition to those who would try to destroy us, and remember that hatred is the refuge of small-minded individuals, and will only breed more,” she said. “This is not a course we will follow, despite our loss.”

Kirsty Boden

Boden had been working in London since 2013. In a statement, her family said: “Kirsty was loved and adored by her family, friends and boyfriend. She was the most outgoing, kind and generous person who loved to help people. Helping people was what she loved to do in her job as a nurse and in her daily life.

“As she ran towards danger, in an effort to help people on the bridge, Kirsty sadly lost her life. We are so proud of Kirsty’s brave actions which demonstrate how selfless, caring and heroic she was, not only on that night, but throughout all of her life. Kirsty – we love you and we will miss you dearly.”

She was a keen traveller and in a blog described herself as “just your average dreamer, with a full-time job and a constant longing to go where I haven’t been”. Recent posts were from Milan, Sofia, Lisbon and Kiev, for the 2017 Eurovision song contest. Urging others to travel, she had written: “At the risk of sounding cliche, life is short and we should all use the time we have wisely,” The Age reported.



Paying tribute, Dame Eileen Sills, the chief nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust said: “Kirsty was an outstanding nurse and a hugely valued member of the staff team in Theatres Recovery, described by her colleagues as ‘one in a million’ who always went the extra mile for the patients in her care.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Melissa McMullan, sister of James McMullan. Photograph: Sky News

James McMullan

James McMullan, from Hackney in east London, had not been seen since he stepped out of the Barrowboy and Banker pub on Borough High Street for a cigarette five minutes before the attackers crashed their van directly outside.

Melissa McMullan had posted an appeal for information about her “amazing and incredibly talented big brother” on social media. She said he had been meeting up with school friends and had not been home or in contact since the attack. Friends had checked hospitals without success. The Londoner was about to launch an e-learning business.

Reading a statement announcing that James was believed to be among the victims after his bank card was found on one of those killed, Melissa, 30, said: “From his friends who were with him on the night, they want everyone to know what a generous and caring friend he was. Words will never be able to match his essence. There will only ever be one James. Nowhere else will you find such humour and unique personality and someone who puts friends and family above all else. He was an inspiration.”

Christine Archibald

A Canadian victim was named by her family as Christine Archibald, from Castlegar, British Columbia. After graduating in social work from Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, she had worked at a homeless shelter. Her family said: “We grieve the loss of our beautiful, loving daughter and sister. She had room in her heart for everyone and believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christine Archibald, who was killed in the attack on Saturday. Photograph: AP

“She lived this belief, working in a shelter for the homeless until she moved to Europe to be with her fiance. She would have had no understanding of the callous cruelty that caused her death. Please honour her by making your community a better place. Volunteer your time and labour or donate to a homeless shelter. Tell them Chrissy sent you.”

Archibald was with her fiance, Tyler Ferguson, when she died. His sister, Cassie Ferguson, told CBC News: “He is broken into a million pieces. He held her and watched her die in his arms.”

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said he was heartbroken at the news. “We grieve with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones, and wish all those injured a speedy and full recovery,” he said.

“Londoners and people across the United Kingdom have always displayed strength and resilience in the face of adversity. We recently witnessed this after the attacks in Manchester and in the Westminster area of London. This time will be no different.”

French victims

Three French citizens are believed to have died. Two are confirmed killed, while police searching for a third missing man have recovered a body from the Thames. The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said: “It is with great sadness that I have learned that one of the French citizens, who was previously given as unaccounted for, has been identified among those who have died.”

Le Drian did not name the victim but French media identified him as Sébastien Bélanger, 36, from Angers, a chef at the Coq d’Argent restaurant in the City who friends and relatives said had been watching the Champions league final with friends in a Borough market restaurant called Boro Bistro. Bélanger, who had lived in London for seven years, was reported missing by his girlfriend, Gerda Bennet, a bartender in Hoxton in the east of the city.



Appealing for information online, she said: “My heart is broken and I wish no one in this world could feel what I feel now.”

Bélanger’s cousin, Céline, told RTL radio that he and his friends “became separated when the attackers entered the bar. They all ran in different directions to escape, and lost contact with each other”.



Le Parisien newspaper said it had confirmed his death late on Tuesday night, adding that his mother and brother were expected to arrive in London on Wednesday. The paper said Bélanger had begun the evening in the The Barrowboy & Banker pub before moving on to the bistro.



French media on Tuesday named Alexandre Pigeard, 27, from Normandy, who moved to London two-and-a-half years ago and was working on Saturday night at the Boro Bistro, as also having died.

La Manche Libre quoted residents from Pigeard’s home town, Colleville-Montgomery near Caen as saying his death had been confirmed by the mayor. “He was a kid who wanted to succeed, who loved life,” one resident told the newspaper.

The paper said he was a familiar figure in Caen, where he had worked in a number of bars before leaving for the UK. The mother of Vincent Le Berre, a French bar manager at Boro Bistro in Borough market, earlier told Le Telegramme that her son believed a colleague of his, Alexandre, had been killed at the bar.

Le Drian said on Monday he had wanted to come to London “to show that France is at Britain’s side. “The UK has been hit for the third time in less than three months by a terrorist attack. We wanted to show our solidarity to all families of the victims and show we are all concerned by this, and to express our profound compassion.”

“At present the the toll among French citizens of the London attack is two dead and eight injured, including four in a serious condition,” the foreign ministry said. One French national “remains missing”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christine Delcros and Xavier Thomas. Photograph: Facebook

Xavier Thomas’s next of kin have been informed that the body of a man was found in the river on Tuesday night at 7.44pm near Limehouse by specialist officers from the marine police unit.



Thomas, who was in London for the weekend with his girlfriend, has not been seen since Saturday night. His girlfriend, Christine Delcros, was seriously injured. Her sister, Nathalie Cros Brohan, posted online that she was on her way to London to visit Delcros in hospital. She appealed for anyone with news of Thomas to get in touch, adding: “We are terribly worried.”



Ignacio Echeverría

Ignacio Echeverría. Photograph: Facebook

Ignacio Echeverría, 39, from Madrid, who works for HSBC in London, had apparently been skateboarding in a park with friends when he stopped to help a woman who was injured in the atrocity. His family had been asked for fingerprints for identification purposes.



Sara Zelenak

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sara Zelenak was reportedly last seen running from the attack on London Bridge. Photograph: Facebook

Australian Sara Zelenak, 21, was last seen running from the attack on London Bridge, where she became separated from friends. Her mother, Julie, who travelled to London, confirmed her death in a Facebook post saying: “Sara Zelenak is confirmed dead they found her body & has DNA tests confirmed thank-you for all the overwhelming love & support from everyone.” Zelenak was a nanny, and was supposed to be babysitting on Saturday night but there was a last-minute change of plan.

Her mother told Australian radio station 97.3FM her daughter had been travelling in Europe since March, and was working as an au pair in London. She said her daughter had been at Westminster the day before Khalid Masood killed five in a car and knife rampage and had also planned to go to the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, where suicide bomber Salman Abedi murdered 22 victims. “Everything, she’s just missed,” she had said.



British Transport Police officer



Among the 48 injured were four police officers, including a British Transport Police officer who confronted the terrorists with nothing more than a baton. Theresa May said many of the wounded had sustained life-threatening injuries, while the NHS said at least 21 people were in a critical condition.

The BTP chief constable, Paul Crowther, said he had visited his colleague in hospital and he had “showed enormous courage in the face of danger, as did many others who were at the scene and rushed to help”.

“Although he is seriously unwell, he was able to recount how he faced the attackers armed only with his baton, outside London Bridge station. For an officer who only joined us less than two years ago, the bravery he showed was outstanding and makes me extremely proud,” he said.

Play Video 2:12 How the London Bridge attacks unfolded – video report

A Metropolitan police officer, a rugby player based in Southwark, was off duty and having a drink with friends when he was stabbed tackling one of the three attackers. He is in a serious condition. The Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, said: “My understanding is that, without hesitation, wearing his normal clothes, he dived in and tried to assist, and he I’m afraid was himself severely injured, but utterly heroic.”

A further two Met officers were hurt while on duty, one a plain clothes officer who received stitches to a head injury, and a uniformed officer who received an injury to his arm.



Man hit by police bullet

Mark Rowley, the Met police assistant commissioner, said a member of the public was shot as officers tried to neutralise the terrorists with an “unprecedented” level of gunfire. Speaking at a press conference, Rowley said the individual was being treated in hospital but was not in a critical condition.

He said eight armed officers discharged about 50 bullets as they tried to stop the three knife-wielding attackers.

Dr Malik Ramadhan, a senior doctor at the Royal London hospital, told the Guardian the man was shot in the head but was expected to make a full recovery. “We had one gunshot wound. There’s a patient in this hospital who’s been shot in the head; a man. He’s absolutely not dying. Our expectation is that he will make a full recovery,” said Ramadhan, the divisional director for trauma at the hospital.

Daniel O’Neill

Daniel O’Neill. Photograph: Facebook

The mother of one of the victims, 23-year-old Daniel O’Neill, has told of her son’s experience. “He just stepped outside the bar for a second and a man ran up to him and said ‘this is for my family, this is for Islam’, and stuck a knife straight in him. He’s got a 7in scar going from his belly round to his back,” Elizabeth O’Neill told reporters outside King’s College hospital.

“The man ran away, Daniel headed back into the pub, there were shots fired, everybody was told to lie down, and then they were told to go downstairs in the bar. At this stage, Daniel’s friend had put a tourniquet on him and was holding pressure there. He was brought downstairs – parts of that he doesn’t remember – and then the police were there and brought him in their car to the hospital.”

O’Neill said her son could talk but was in shock. “These people say they are doing this in the name of God, which is an absolute joke. They are callous, they are barbaric and they are absolute cowards. We will carry on as normal,” she said.

London hospitals, including King’s College hospital, the Royal London and St Thomas’s confirmed they were among those treating the injured, though a number had now been discharged.

Geoff Ho

Geoff Ho. Photograph: Facebook

Geoff Ho, the Sunday Express business editor, was taken to intensive care after being stabbed in the throat when he tried to help a wounded bouncer. He was filmed being led away from the scene by a police officer, clutching his neck and with his shirt off.

According to the Mirror, he wrote on Facebook: “Don’t know whether it was stupid or noble to jump in and break up the fight outside the Southwark Tavern, but two a***s trying to do over the lone bouncer on the door isn’t happening on my watch.”

His friend, Isabelle Oderberg, tweeted: “We have found Geoff. He is in intensive care.” She told the Melbourne newspaper the Age: “He is actually a martial artist and I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have stood up and been counted because he’s just that type of person.”

From his hospital bed, Ho wrote: “The bastard in the Arsenal shirt came at me first. I think I got a hit in on one of them, but either he or his accomplice got me with a shot to the throat.”

On Tuesday morning Ho tweeted:

Geoff Ho (@FinanceHog) Thank you every one for the best wishes. I got out of surgery yesterday and am on the mend.

Antonis Filis

Antonis Filis, a Greek national who works in London, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed in the kidney. Greece’s state news agency said Filis, who also sustained head injuries, had been with his girlfriend in Borough Market.

According to Greek local media, Filis’s parents, Giorgos and Grazia-Maria, heard the news from his girlfriend. Filis lived close to Borough Market and his father sent a message to check that he was all right. “We didn’t get an answer, and then a little while later we saw a call come in from his phone. A girl said: ‘Don’t worry, he is well, he has been injured,’” Giorgos Filis told Lamia Report, a news outlet in the central Greek town.

“I wouldn’t wish it on any parent to be faced with the feeling that we had … he stared at death in the face … he said they were aiming for his carotid – with God’s help and with him throwing up his hand [in front of his face], he was hit on the head. If it had been a little bit lower we don’t know what would have happened.”

Filis required eight stitches to his head and several hours of surgery after being knifed in the kidney. His father said he was now out of danger.

Brett Freeman

Brett Freeman, from Dagenham, east London, was stabbed four times according to friend Darren Mole. Mole tweeted:



DarrenMole (@DarrenMole) Just woke up to find a friend of mine stabbed 4 times in the #LondonBridge terror attack. All on your watch @SadiqKhan 😡 time to resign

Mole posted a picture of Freeman in his hospital bed.



DarrenMole (@DarrenMole) He's a soldier 👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/XTeaPvjr8M

Candice Hedge, 31

Kim del Toro, the mother of Candice Hedge from Australia who was named as one of those hurt in the attack, told Fairfax Media that her daughter had received emergency surgery at St Thomas’s hospital, and said: “She is going to be fine, thank goodness.”

The Brisbane Courier Mail said Hedge had finished her waiting shift at Elliot’s restaurant and was having a drink at the bar when a man came up behind her, grabbed her head and slashed at her throat.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Candice Hedge was injured by one of the attackers. Photograph: Facebook

Del Toro said Hedge had been at the bar with her boyfriend, Luke, when “he heard some commotion out the front and went out to see what was going on”.

“He saw some men with knives coming toward them, and he ran back inside to see where Candice was.”

She said he had been unable to find her, and the police had yelled for everyone to stay down. He had then seen his girlfriend running towards him, holding her bleeding neck.

Del Toro said her daughter had been able to make a Skype call on Sunday morning. “She couldn’t speak, but I got to see her and she gave me the thumbs up, so I knew that she was OK.”

Hedge also posted on Facebook to reassure friends, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. She wrote: “I’m doing OK. Still in hospital, but all in the clear. I really can’t talk. The f----- stabbed me in the neck. Don’t worry too much. I love you all.”

Andrew Morrison

Andrew Morrison. Photograph: Guardian

In a video posted on Reddit, Morrison, from Darwin, Australia, who had a bloodstained cloth wrapped around his neck, said he had been stabbed after leaving Belushi’s bar where he had been watching the Champions League final.

“All of a sudden this guy comes up with a knife … I push him off. I walk into a pub and say: ‘Someone help me, I’ve been stabbed,’” he said on the video.

Morrison’s sister Katrina told the NT News the family was just happy he was safe. “Yes, my brother was involved,” she said. “We’re currently sorting out his flight home.”

Oliver Dowling and Marie Bondeville

Oliver Dowling, 32, from Christchurch, New Zealand, was recovering from four hours of surgery after being stabbed in the face, neck and stomach.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marie Bondeville with her boyfriend Oliver Dowling. Photograph: Facebook

According to the New Zealand Herald, his sister Freddy posted on Facebook: “Doctors are very happy with how he’s come out the other side. A massive thanks to the University of London hospital for their tireless efforts in helping my brother out!”

His girlfriend, Marie Bondeville, was also injured, she wrote, adding: “Marie has been in surgery at another hospital but unfortunately we haven’t been able to find out how she is due to not being immediate family.”

Roy Larner

Roy Larner in hospital in a photograph taken by a friend – with a Runner’s World guide on his chest. Photograph: twitter

Larner, 47, from Peckham, was stabbed eight times as he fought with the trio of attackers at the Black & Blue bar in Borough Market. They shouted: “This is for Allah” and “Islam, Islam, Islam,” he told the Sun. He said he shouted back: “Fuck you, I’m Millwall,” before trying to punch them.

Other victims

A spokesman for Spain’s foreign ministry told the Associated Press that a Spanish man had been treated in hospital for wounds described as not serious.

Two German nationals were among the injured, according to Germany’s interior ministry.

Six women and eight men were taken to King’s College hospital in south London and one patient had since been discharged, a spokesman said. The Royal London hospital in east London was continuing to treat 12 people, Barts health NHS trust said.

A spokeswoman for Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS foundation trust said it had treated nine patients at St Thomas’s – six men and three women. Five had since been discharged and four – two men and two women – had been admitted.

A rest centre was set up at London South Bank University where volunteers from the British Red Cross were helping those affected, Southwark council said.

Of the 48 people admitted to five London hospitals following the attack, 32 still remained, NHS England said on Tuesday. The number of those in a critical condition fell to 15 from 18 on Monday, and 21 initially.