It began with a few simple messages about an  apparently mundane road crash near a primary school.

But within minutes the full bloody horror of  the Woolwich terror attack was unfolding live on the internet.

Stunned witnesses sent dozens of messages  describing graphically the unstoppable carnage taking place before their  eyes.

Two assailants rammed their car into an  off-duty soldier from the barracks nearby before stabbing and slashing him to  death with knives and cleavers, shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ – God is Great – the  battle-cry of Muslim jihadists around the world.

As they dragged their victim in the street,  dozens of passers-by took photographs and videos.

Then, in an unspeakably chilling act, one of  the killers casually held ‘media’ interviews with random members of the public  as he waited calmly for armed police to arrive.

Standing with bloody hands and two large  knives, the man looked into the camera and said: ‘You people will never be  safe.’

Moments later the killers were gunned down by  police. Witnesses said they ran towards a markswoman waving knives and a ‘rusty’  revolver.

The remarkable accounts are the result of  21st century mobile phone technology which turns everyone into citizen  journalists.

Most witnesses sent messages via the Twitter  social networking site and Facebook, while others contributed to internet forums  and newspaper websites.

Scotland Yard was left mute, impotently  saying that an ‘assault’ had taken place in Woolwich and they were  investigating.

Aftermath: The dead soldier, circled left, and one of  the shot terrorists, right, in Woolwich, south-east London

The drama began when the two attackers  smashed into their victim as he walked in John Wilson Street, a stone’s throw  from Woolwich Barracks.

Luke Huseyin, 32, who lives in a flat  overlooking the scene, said he initially thought the driver had lost  control.

‘I was at home and heard a big bang,’ he  said. ‘I looked out of the window and saw a car had crashed. It was a blue  Vauxhall.’

His thoughts were echoed by others. One said:  ‘There were two guys on the floor, we thought they’d been involved in a crash of  some sort.’

In the confusion, some thought that  the two  men crouched over their victim, a white man in a Help For Heroes T-shirt, were  trying to help him. But they quickly realised they were  intent    on murder.

Mr  Huseyin said: ‘Two black guys got out of  the car dragging a white guy  across the road towards the wall. One of the guys  had a knife that  looked about a foot long and a machete. The other bloke had a  gun.

‘They started slashing him up with the knife  and hitting him in the stomach  with the machete. I don’t think it took long  before he was dead.

‘There  were people passing by who were  screaming and running away. I’ve never  seen anything like it. I’m still really  shaken up.’

Another witness said: ‘My partner in the car  let out an almighty scream, we saw clearly two knives.

Smashed: The car used to knock the man over. A trail of  blood shows where his body was dragged

‘One was a meat cleaver, they weren’t little  knives, they were big kitchen knives like you use in a butcher’s. They were  hacking at the poor guy. They were chopping him, cutting him.

‘My partner jumped out of the car and  shouted, I jumped out as well. One of the black guys went into the crashed car,  got into the front and pulled out a bag. He pointed a gun. He shouted at my  partner, “Get in the car, get in the car”.

‘I called police and said, “You need armed  response, you need police, you need someone here – these two guys are chopping  this man to pieces”.

‘These two guys were crazed, they were not  there, they were animals, they then dragged the poor guy. He was obviously dead,  there was no way a human could take what they did to him, they dragged him from  the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and just left it.’

Julia and Graham Wilders saw the attack as  they drove past. Mrs Wilders, 51, a mother of four, said her son, nine, attends  the primary school.

‘I thought there’d been an accident. But then  I saw they were using meat cleavers to hack him up,’ she said.

Mr Wilders, 50, said: ‘When we walked  back  down to see what was happening, one of the black men pulled a  handgun out from  behind him.

‘There was a lorry driver and it looked like  he was waving it at the lorry  driver. He got down out of his cab and legged it.  It was absolutely  terrifying.

‘I saw a load of kids come out of school  gates and I just yelled at them to get back. I  ran up to the school shouting  there’s a gunman and to get everybody  inside.

‘The headmaster came out and they closed the  school gates and kept everyone in. That was when I heard four shots.

Clues to carnage: A police forensics officer examines a  gun at the scene of the attack in London yesterday

‘My wife saw it, she saw the police shoot the  black guys.

‘I can’t believe this has happened. But it  could’ve been so much worse, those kids were just feet from the men with the  gun.’

David Dixon, headteacher of Mulgrave Primary  School, said he saw a body lying in the road and put the school into  lockdown.

‘All I needed to know was that there was  an  emergency and we needed to go into our emergency procedures to make  sure that  the children were as safe as possible,’ he said.

‘That was my main priority. We got all the  staff to get the children in because some of them were outside doing activities,  we locked all the gates.’

Then an astonishing 20-minute stand-off took  place as the two killers simply stood in the street waiting for police.

One bystander said they appeared ‘proud’ of  what they had done as one stood over their motionless body of their victim, who  lay in a pool  of blood.

‘It was like something out of a horror  movie,’ he said.

Joe Tallant, 20, a van loader who lives near  the scene, said the attackers were walking around the body saying: ‘This is what  God would’ve wanted’.

As curious crowds gathered, one of the men  walked down the street and began asking people to take photos of them. A witness  said: ‘It was as if he wanted to be on TV.’

The man, a tall black man wearing a beanie  hat, then turned to someone filming on their phone and began ranting.

Apologising to people nearby, in a clear  English accent, he said: ‘We must fight them as they fight us. An eye  for an  eye, a tooth for a tooth.’

Several brave women who attempted to help the  dying man and shield him from further blows were not attacked.

Mr Tallant said: ‘My friend and her mum were  walking up the hill and the mum came straight to the victim.

‘She asked the black guys, “Can I help him?”  and one of them said he was already dead but she could go. Then one of them  said, “No man is coming near this body, only women”.

‘She was so brave, she didn’t care what  happened to her – she knelt down by his side and comforted him. She held his  hand and put her other hand on his chest. I think she might have been praying.

‘My friend [the woman’s daughter] was crying  her eyes out. She is a very religious woman. She saw everything and wanted to  comfort the man.’

As armed police suddenly came around the  corner, the two killers charged straight towards their vehicle, a large marked  four-wheel drive.

One witness said: ‘A shot was fired by the  other guy with the gun, next thing we know the police ran out and, if I’m not  mistaken, six shots were fired and both men went down.

‘They were oblivious to anything, they were  more worried about photos being taken and walking up and down the road, they had  no intentions of running off.

‘They were waiting for the police to arrive  to be shot by police.’

In the aftermath, it emerged that the blue  Vauxhall Tigra with tinted windows had been seen circling Woolwich for weeks.

One minicab driver said: ‘It’s a really  distinctive vehicle and looks flash – like one a drug-dealer would  drive.

‘It’s been hanging around for ages right  around the barracks. I’d be surprised if they haven’t been stopped by police  before, as that’s the car they routinely pull over round here.

‘I’m a Muslim but if these guys did this in  the name of Islam, then they don’t deserve to be part of this society.’

Read more: DailyMail