Reading, England - The English town of
Reading held a minute's silence on Monday for the victims of a
stabbing that killed three people including an American in the
latest terrorism-linked attack.
Three people were also hospitalised after a man wielding a
five-inch knife went on the rampage in a park on Saturday,
randomly stabbing people enjoying a sunny, summer evening.
A Western security source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told Reuters that the suspect was a 25-year-old
Libyan called Khairi Saadallah.
Calling the incident terrorism, police said a 25-year-old
had been arrested but they were not hunting others. "What we saw
here on Saturday evening in Reading was the actions of one lone
individual," Home Secretary (interior minister) Priti Patel said
Patel later told parliament that the risk from lone
attackers was growing, and that if further government action was
needed to stop such incidents, she would not hesitate to act.
The Philadelphia Inquirer said one of the dead was U.S.
citizen Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who had lived in Britain for 15
years. US ambassador Woody Johnson sent condolences to
families of victims. "To our great sorrow, this includes an
American citizen," he said on Twitter.
Colleagues and pupils of teacher James Furlong stand together to take part in a period of silence at the Holt School, in Wokingham, England. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA via AP
Teacher James Furlong, 36, who was friends with
Ritchie-Bennett according to media reports, was also killed. "He
was beautiful, intelligent, honest and fun," his parents said.
The third victim has not yet been identified.
ON MI5'S RADAR
The security source told Reuters that Saadallah had come
across the radar of Britain's domestic security agency MI5 last
year over intelligence he had aspirations to travel for
extremist purposes, although his plans then came to nothing.
"The security services have records on thousands of people
and rightly so," said Patel, adding she was limited in what she
could say because the investigation was live.
Police forensic officers search near the scene of a fatal multiple stabbing attack in Forbury Gardens, central Reading, England. A lone terror suspect remains in custody accused of killing three people and wounding three others in a Reading park on Saturday night. Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Shocked residents of Reading, about 40 miles (65 km) west of
London, held a minute's silence at 0900 GMT.
The attack was reminiscent of some recent incidents in
Britain that authorities also called terrorism.
In February, police shot dead a man, previously jailed for
promoting violent Islamist material, who had stabbed two people
on a busy street in south London. Last November, another man who
had been jailed for terrorism offences stabbed two people to
death on London Bridge before he too was shot dead by police.