London • The knife-wielding attackers appeared to be leaving the restaurant where Candice Hedge was hiding under a table when one of them spotted her, returning to slash her throat, the 34-year-old waitress' father told an Australian newspaper.
Hedge, who moved to London last year, had just finished her shift at Elliot's restaurant and was having a drink with her boyfriend when the attack started, Ross Hedge told The Courier Mail of Brisbane. Candice Hedge wrote on social media that she was in a "bit of pain" after undergoing surgery.
"But I will survive," she said.
Hedge was one of at least 48 people who were injured in the attack carried out by three men in the London Bridge area that also left seven people dead and worried friends and relatives frantic to find out about others still missing. Eighteen of the injured remain in critical condition.
Victims and their families gave harrowing accounts of the sudden and random attacks that sent scores of people out on a Saturday night fleeing crowded restaurants and pubs or diving for cover. Others had no chance to react.
Ross Hedge said his daughter was "very lucky," though "she was terrified, of course."
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the brazen attack that started on London Bridge, where three attackers drove a rented white van onto a sidewalk and into pedestrians. Then, armed with knives and wearing fake suicide vests, they rampaged through Borough Market, an old-fashioned outdoor food market by day surrounded by bars and restaurants that come alive at night.
Australia's foreign minister said Hedge was among three Australians injured in the attacks. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Andrew Morrison received stitches for a stab wound to his neck and was on his way home to Australia. The government is still making inquiries into the third Australian's condition.
Morrison, an electrician from Darwin, posted on social media that he had been stabbed leaving Belushi's London Bridge bar after watching the Champions League soccer final.
"All of a sudden this guy comes up with a knife. I just, like, push him off. I walk into a pub and I'm like: 'Someone help me, I've just been stabbed,'" Morrison said in a video.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said Sunday that a member of the public suffered gunshot wounds as officers opened fire and stopped the attackers.
A worker at Wheatsheaf pub, Fabio Lamas, 20, told NBC News he saw a patron get shot in the head by a stray police bullet as he stood by a window inside the establishment. At least one of the attackers was fatally shot outside the pub.
Lamas said the victim was conscious and "he was bleeding through his eye."
"I went to get the first-aid kit and I started speaking to his friends and to try and calm them down," he said.
Daniel O'Neill, 23, had just stepped outside a pub near Borough Market when he was attacked, his mother, Elizabeth, told reporters Sunday outside Kings College Hospital in London.
"A man ran up to him and said 'This is for my family, this is for Islam,' and stuck a knife straight in," she said. "He's got a seven-inch scar going from his belly round to his back."
Also among the injured was the business editor for Britain's Sunday Express newspaper. Editor Geoff Ho was photographed walking toward an ambulance on the arm of a police officer with a makeshift bandage on his neck. Ho intervened as the attackers tried to knife a bouncer at a pub, the newspaper said.
"Don't know whether it was stupid or noble to jump in and break up the fight outside the Southwark Tavern," Ho wrote on his Facebook page, the newspaper said.
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Webber reported from Chicago. Associated Press Writer Linda Wang in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Floral tributes line the pavement outside Monument underground station in the London Bridge area of 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/Alastair Grant)
A forensic officer walks from at a house in east London, after police conducted raids following Saturday's deadly terror attack in the capital, 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. (John Stillwell/PA via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May makes a speech at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in central London while on the General Election campaign trail. Monday June 5, 2017. The British electorate will vote in a general election on Thursday. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)
A view of the van, Sunday June 4, 2017, which was used by three attackers which was driven onto London Bridge, striking pedestrians, before they went on a stabbing rampage in nearby Borough Market Saturday evening. Several people were killed in the terror attack at the heart of London and dozens injured. Prime Minister Theresa May convened an emergency security cabinet session Sunday to deal with the crisis. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
A woman walks past a Jeremy Corbyn mural in Camden, London on Thursday, June 1, 2017. After a career marked more by his appearance at peace marches and union rallies than speeches in Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, the bearded 68-year-old who promotes “the socialism of the 21st century’’, is trying to overcome skepticism about his leadership in a national election that will determine how the country exits the European Union. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
People look at flowers near London Bridge following Saturday's attack 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. (Isabel Infantes/PA via AP)
Police surround the van used by the attackers at London Bridge, Saturday June 3, 2017. The assault began Saturday night when a van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on busy London Bridge. Three men fled the van with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market, police and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Kevin Dunne)
Emergency personnel on London Bridge after an incident in central London, Saturday, June 3, 2017. British police said they were dealing with "incidents" on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market in the heart of the British capital Saturday, as witnesses reported a vehicle veering off the road and hitting several pedestrians. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)
Emergency personnel on London Bridge after an incident in central London, Saturday, June 3, 2017. British police said they were dealing with "incidents" on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market in the heart of the British capital Saturday, as witnesses reported a vehicle veering off the road and hitting several pedestrians. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)
Armed police outside Borough Market, London, Sunday June 4, 2017, near the scene of Saturday night's terrorist incident on London Bridge and at Borough Market. Several people were killed in the terror attack at the heart of London and dozens injured. Prime Minister Theresa May convened an emergency security cabinet session Sunday to deal with the crisis. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)
This photo taken by photographer Gabriele Sciotto shows a man, foreground, one of the suspects, wearing what appear to be canisters strapped to his chest lying on the ground after being shot by police outside Borough Market in London Saturday, June 3, 2017. Terrorists struck at the heart of London on Saturday night in a series of vehicle and knife attacks before police shot them dead, authorities said. (Gabriele Sciotto via AP)
Forensic police and morgue personnel work within a cordoned off area after an attack in the London Bridge area of London, Sunday, June 4, 2017. Police specialists collected evidence in the heart of London after a series of attacks described as terrorism killed several people and injured more than 40 others. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
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