London Bridge attack: Duchess of Cambridge visits victims

The Duchess of Cambridge praised the work of hospital staff

The Duchess of Cambridge has visited a hospital to meet staff and patients affected by the London Bridge attack.

The duchess met two groups of staff at King's College Hospital, south London, who were working on the evening of the attack and have continued to provide support to patients.

She also met patients in private.

Eight people were killed and 48 injured when three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then stabbed people in Borough Market.

• What we know so far

• Who were the victims?

• Who were the attackers?

Away from the cameras, the duchess spoke to some of the seven patients who are still at the hospital.

One of the patients is critically ill but the duchess was expected to see the other six who are in a more stable condition.

The duchess also met staff who were working on the evening of the attack, including doctors, nurses, support staff and porters.

She asked about their roles and praised their efforts, saying: "Well done."

She told staff it was "quite unprecedented to go through this sort of event twice", after the Westminster Bridge attack on 22 March that killed five people.

At the end of her visit, she met a senior doctor to learn about the work the hospital does to help staff to process what they experienced when they treated the patients.

Meanwhile, Borough Market is to reopen at 10:00 BST on Wednesday.

Traders will pause for a minute's silence to remember the victims of the attack before the market bell is rung at the start of business.

A total of 14 of the victims were admitted to King's College Hospital following the attack on 3 June in which the attackers were shot dead by armed police.

Head of nursing Lynne Watkins-Hulme said it was unusual to have to deal with so many female casualties.

"That was quite traumatic for the staff. We are not used to so many females being injured," she said.

"We are used to seeing people who are stabbed. But to have six women who were stabbed, multiple times - it was just the amount of people - that was upsetting."

The duchess also spoke to emergency consultant Malcolm Tunnicliff, who went to the hospital when he heard the news.

He said: "We are very, very used to dealing with stabbings in this area.

"We are one of the busiest hospitals in western Europe for dealing with penetrating injuries but it was the volume and it is usually young men that stab each other, and there were quite a lot of ladies who were stabbed."

Dr Tunnicliff highlighted the "dedication of all the staff and actually how resilient they are, and they are very proud to work for King's and the NHS for that matter".

The Queen visited Royal Manchester Children's Hospital on 25 May after the Ariana Grande concert suicide bombing, and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall went to the Royal London Hospital after the London Bridge attack last week.