THE leader of Wokingham Borough has paid tribute to the efforts of the emergency services in light of the London Bridge terror attack on Saturday night.

Mayor Rob Stanton issued his sadness at the sustained attacks, with three incidents recorded in London and Manchester since March.

A benefit concert was held at Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground on Sunday evening nearly a fortnight after 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert.

Councillor Stanton said: "Whenever evil threatens our way of life, we come together to defeat it. Any terrorist act, whether in London last Saturday night, or in Manchester, or on Westminster Bridge before that, saddens, angers and appals us.

"It also hardens our resolve. These perpetrators delude themselves if they imagine that killing people in our country with knives, bombs and vehicles could possibly make us change our way of life.

"Throughout living memory, and beyond, many have tried to impose their twisted ideology on these islands by force and every attempt to do this has failed."

The day before thousands of music fans attended the Manchester concert, a further attack struck the capital, with seven more people dying after a van of three terrorists ploughed into pedestrians before merciless stabbings took place in Southwark bars.

Emergency services attended and shot the three individuals responsible within eight minutes.

Cllr Stanton added: "British values and democracy will endure not only here but right across the country.

"We would like to pay tribute to our brave and dedicated security forces and emergency services, who once again risked their lives in London on Saturday night for our safety.

"We remember especially those who were injured, some of them heroic members of the public, whilst coming to the help of others and of the fantastic job that the NHS hospitals performed once more on our behalf.

"We live in an open democracy - we must protect it and we really do need to see a change for the better."