'Resilient' Londoners won't let attack define city

Robert Mercer and his wife have lived in Raleigh for 16 years, but still have friends, family and co-workers back in England.

The couple said when they got word of the attack, their loved ones were the first thing on their minds.

"My sister-in-law works nearby. And my previous company, their headquarters are in the center of London, so a lot of my old colleagues and friends were there," Mercer said.

Mercer said he turned to the news and Facebook.

"Social media was so quick," he said. "A lot of them checked in safe. All of our friends, safe. Our sister-in-law, safe. So there is not a problem."

While Mercer worried about his loved ones, Steve Cain, president of the Raleigh chapter of the British American Business Council, was also concerned about one of his, a daughter studying for a master’s degree in London.

"That is her favorite spot. I've got so many pictures of her standing on that bridge with the London Eye or Big Ben in the background, so the first thing we did was reach out to her to make sure she was safe," Cain said.

Fortunately, she was fine.

"She was just shocked and thought it was a bit scary just because it was such a familiar spot to her but obviously, we were very relieved that she was ok," he said.

And while both men say the tragedy rocked them, along with many across the world, both said Londoners will never let the bad guys win.

"We Brits in general and Londoners in particular are pretty resilient," Cain said.

"I was very pleased to see, for example, Parliament go back to work today. Things keep moving forward. So whatever they tried to do didn't work," Mercer said.