London - A van ploughed into worshippers
leaving a London mosque on Monday, killing at least one person
and injuring 10 others in what witnesses said was a deliberate
attack on Muslims.
The incident was being treated as a potential terrorist
attack said Prime Minister Theresa May, which if confirmed would
make it the fourth since March in Britain and the third to
involve a vehicle deliberately driven at pedestrians.
Shortly after midnight, the hired vehicle swerved into a
group of people leaving prayers at the Finsbury Park Mosque, one
of the biggest in the country, witnesses said. The attack comes
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"This big van just came and went all over us," witness
Abdulrahman Saleh Alamoudi told BuzzFeed News. "He (the driver)
was screaming... 'I'm going to kill all Muslims'."
Eyewitness tells @jamesrbuk man drove van at pedestrians outside London mosque, then shouted “Kill me, kill me, I want to kill all Muslims” pic.twitter.com/gSgTX05aSQ
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 19, 2017
Police said one man was pronounced dead at the scene and the
van driver, aged 48, had been detained by members of the public
before being arrested. The driver would undergo a mental health
assessment, police said.
A man has died after "potential terrorist attack" in #FinsburyPark, north London. 48-year-old man has been arrested https://t.co/iuoVrvSunw pic.twitter.com/UlPnZcahef
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 19, 2017
Eight people were taken to hospital and two were treated at
the scene. Usain Ali, 28, who was near the mosque at the time,
said he heard a bang and ran for his life.
"When I looked back, I thought it was a car accident, but
people were shouting, screaming and I realised this was a man
choosing to terrorise people who are praying," he told Reuters.
"He chose exactly the time that people pray, and the mosque is
too small and full, so some pray outside.
The attack comes at a time of political turmoil in Britain,
as Prime Minister May, weakened by the loss of her parliamentary
majority in a June 8 election, plunges into divorce talks with
the European Union.
She has faced heavy criticism for her response to a fire in
a London tower block last Wednesday which killed at least 58
people, and for her record on security after a series of attacks
blamed on Islamist militants in recent months.
"All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and
the emergency services on the scene," May said, adding that she
would chair an emergency response meeting later on Monday.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said extra police had been
deployed to reassure communities, especially those observing
Ramadan, describing the attack as "an assault on all our shared
values of tolerance, freedom and respect".
Thoughts & prayers with all those affected by the horrific terrorist attack on innocent people in #FinsburyPark. https://t.co/H85QpLdcbd
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 19, 2017
The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, in
whose constituency the attack took place, said he was "totally
shocked".
The incident comes just over two weeks after three Islamist
militants drove into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed
people at nearby restaurants and bars, killing eight.
.
It also follows a suicide bombing at a pop concert in
Manchester, northern England, in May which killed 22, while in
March, a man drove a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster
Bridge in London and stabbed a policeman to death before being
shot dead. His attack killed five people.
Police had said hate crimes had risen after the London
Bridge attack and they had stepped up their visible presence at
places of worship.
The Muslim Council of Britain said Monday's attack was the
most violent manifestation of Islamophobia in Britain in recent
months and called for extra security at places of worship.
"It appears that a white man in a van intentionally ploughed
into a group of worshippers who were already tending to someone
who had been taken ill," the council said in a statement.
The incident occurred almost exactly a year since the murder
of lawmaker Jo Cox who was shot dead by a man obsessed with
Nazis and extreme right-wing ideology. There had been a number
of events over the weekend to commemorate her life.
"We must all continue to stand together, resolute, against
all those who try to divide us and spread hate and fear," said
British interior minister Amber Rudd.
Police said they were called to reports of a collision on Seven Sisters Road, which
runs through the Finsbury Park area of north London.
He was saying "I want to kill muslims" - Abdul tackled the #FinsburyPark attacker to the ground https://t.co/nAd8sqpOI3 pic.twitter.com/2ZugbP1vyP
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 19, 2017
"From the window, I started hearing a lot of yelling and
screeching, a lot of chaos outside ... Everybody was shouting:
'A van’s hit people, a van’s hit people'," one woman who lives
opposite the scene told the BBC.
One witness told CNN it was clear that the attacker at
Finsbury Park had deliberately targeted Muslims.
"He tried to kill a lot of people so obviously it's a
terrorist attack. He targeted Muslims this time," the witness,
identified only as Rayan, said.
Other witnesses told Sky television that the van had hit at
least 10 people. The Evening Standard newspaper said the van
appeared to have been rented in Wales, although there was no
immediate confirmation of this from the authorities.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim
Council of Britain, said the van had deliberately swerved into a
group of people who were helping a man who was ill and had
fallen to the ground.
"Basically, a van swerved into them deliberately," Versi
told Reuters, citing a witness.
He said the driver had run out of the van but a group of
people caught him and held him until police arrived.
The Finsbury Park Mosque gained notoriety more than a decade
ago for sermons by radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was
sentenced to life in a US prison in January 2015 after being
convicted of terrorism-related charges.
A new board of trustees and management took over in February
2005, a year after Abu Hamza was arrested by British police,
since when attendance has greatly increased among worshippers
from various communities, according to the mosque's website.
Members of the congregation in the two mosques in the area
are mainly from North and West Africa.