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By Sean Moriarty

Teachers and students have this week been praised for remaining calm after getting caught up close to last Friday’s London terror attack on London Bridge.

The Leaving Cert class from St Brigid’s Secondary School were on their annual post-Christmas exams trip to the British capital – and just 300 metres away from where the incident happened – where five people were stabbed, two fatally.

However, they managed to get the last Tube out of the area before police shut-down the train service.

The attack took place, according to police records, at 1.55pm when perpetrator Usman Kha, a convicted terrorist, was shot dead by police after members of the public unarmed him by using a fire extinguisher.

At the time of the attack the students were visiting The Monument to the Great Fire of London - less than 300 metres away from London Bridge.

The student’s itinerary stated that they should meet outside Monument Tube Station at 2pm so they could carry on their tour to the Imperial War Museum.

“As they were making their way down from The Monument they could see people running in every direction on the bridge,” Deputy Principal Mairéad Lucey told the Killarney Advertiser. “They were just two city blocks away but at the time they did not really know what was going on but they kept to their schedule. It was only when they were on the train, they realised there was something serious going on and that they were on the last train out of there.”

The next stop on the student’s schedule was the Imperial War Museum, approximately 10 stops on The London Underground’s District Line, where there is no mobile signal.

“Once the teachers and students got to the War Museum and realised what was going on, everyone phoned home and the school to let everyone know they were ok,” she added. “Everyone remained calm.”