Sword-wielding journalist challenges terrorists to kill him

An English journalist has placed a bounty on his own head, offering any terrorist who can manage to kill him more than $85,000 as he posed with a sword on the Thames.

New York Observer columnist Andre Walker threw down the challenge alongside a photograph of himself wielding a sword on the banks of the Thames following a terror attack yesterday in London which killed seven and injured 48.

Walker said he wanted to illustrate the "cowardice" displayed by terrorists, including Salman Abedi, who targeted children when he detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22.

"I have nothing but contempt for people who think blowing up children makes them hard. Or that stabbing people in the street is bravery. It really is not," he wrote in The New York Observer.

He said the tweet had attracted three million viewers to his account, yet no one had told him they were prepared to "take on a middle-aged fat guy with a sword".

Instead of sitting at home fearing for his life after news broke of three men mowing down pedestrians on the London Bridge and stabbing people at Borough Market, Walker said he went out for a drink with friends.

"Light a candle and cry if that makes you happy, but what makes me happy is the sure knowledge that every single one of these terrorists is weak and spineless."

"They’re not going to kill me, and they’ll never claim the £50k."