‘Terrorist’ goes on stabbing spree in London, shot dead by police
LONDON: Police shot a man dead in south London on Sunday, after several people were believed to have been stabbed in what police described as a terrorism-related incident.
“A man has been shot by armed officers in Streatham (south London). At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related,” the police said on Twitter. Police said later the man they had shot had been pronounced dead. Armed police cordoned off the area, on the main shopping street in Streatham, a busy residential district south of the Thames. Several videos of the scene were posted on Twitter, but not verified by Reuters. In one, filmed from inside a shop across the road, a man can be seen lying on the street while at least two armed police officers point their guns from behind an unmarked car with its blue lights flashing.
Helicopters flew overhead and police cars were in surrounding streets, with the area blocked off by tape.
The last such incident in London was in November, when police shot dead a man who stabbed two people to death before being wrestled to the ground by bystanders.
LONDON: One man was shot dead by Scotland Yard in the London borough of Lambeth in what the police described as a terror incident involving two people being stabbed on Sunday.
“We believe there are two injured victims. We await updates on their conditions. The scene has been fully contained. We will issue more information when possible…The incident has been declared as terrorist-related”, the Lambeth police said in a statement.
The London Ambulance Service said it was treating “a number of patients on the scene”.
Witnesses spoke of three gunshots being fired and a man lying on the ground. Police helicopters and ambulances were quickly on the scene after the incident unfolded around 2 pm local time.
Gulled Bulhan, a 19-year-old student told the PA news agency: “I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer - as they were in civilian clothing”.
“The man was then shot. I think I heard three gun shots but I can’t quite remember. After that I ran into the library to get to safety. From the library I saw a load of ambulances and armed police officers arrive on the scene.”
“We were all informed to stay in buildings by armed police, until we were evacuated,” he said.
The police asked people to avoid Streatham in Lambeth, south London.
The attack is the latest in a series of terror-related incidents in the British capital. On November 29, convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed two people on London Bridge before being shot dead by the police.
“My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
“Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham.”