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Area around London Bridge remains cordoned off, investigation continues

A child looks at the floral tributes after a vigil for victims of Saturday's attack in London Bridge, at Potter's Field Park in London, Monday, June 5, 2017. Police arrested several people and are widening their investigation after a series of attacks described as terrorism killed several people and injured more than 40 others in the heart of London on Saturday. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)

LONDON — Much of the area around London Bridge remained cordoned off as police continued to investigate Saturday’s attack that killed seven people.

The area around Borough Market was not expected to reopen today.

The nearby London Bridge station was operational though one of the exits that leads to the cordoned off area on Borough High Street remained closed.

Transport for London, which oversees the capital’s transport network, has advised commuters, struggling to get to work in the driving rain, to make alternative journeys as the station will be busy.

A minute’s silence was observed in Britain at 11 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) in memory of the seven people who died during the attack late Saturday.

A new search was underway today in a neighborhood near the home of two of the London Bridge attackers, hours after police said they had freed everyone detained in the wake of the rampage that left seven dead and dozens wounded.

The attack, the third in Britain in three months, has raised questions over the government’s ability to protect Britain following cuts to police numbers in recent years. The issue has become a key one in the run-up to Thursday’s general election.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who called the snap election in hopes of strengthening her mandate for discussions over Britain’s exit from the European Union, has come under fire for the cuts to police numbers over recent years. A string of opinion polls over the past couple of weeks have pointed to a narrowing in the gap between her Conservative Party and the main opposition Labour Party.

London police said all 12 people held since the attack late Saturday from the Barking neighborhood in the east of the city, have been freed. The new search was underway today in Ilford, just north of Barking, as authorities tried to determine whether the group had accomplices.

One of the attackers, Khuram Shazad Butt, had appeared in a documentary “The Jihadis Next Door” and was known to investigators but police said he was not believed to be plotting an attack. The second man, Rachid Redouane, had not aroused any suspicions. Police have not released the identity of the third. The three, who were wearing fake suicide vests, were shot dead during the attack.

Questions remain over whether investigators had the resources to look into complaints such as those leveled by Butt’s neighbors about his attempts to radicalize children and whether crucial opportunities were missed that could have saved lives.

The country’s official terror threat level remains at “severe,” one notch down from the highest.

It had been set at “critical” in the days after the Manchester concert bombing on May 22 that killed 22 people — reflecting a judgment that an attack might be imminent because accomplices with similar bombs might be on the loose.

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