Attacker out on probation
Man who killed two on London Bridge had been in jail for terrorism offences
Aman wearing a fake explosive vest stabbed several people in London yesterday, killing a man and a woman in what police are treating as a terrorist attack, before being tackled by members of the public and then fatally shot by officers on London Bridge.
Police said the attacker was Usman Khan, 28, who was released on probation last year after serving six years for terrorism offences.
Metropolitan Police Chief Cressida Dick said two stabbing victims had died and three injured people were being treated in hospitals after the attack, which unfolded yards from the site of a deadly 2017 van and knife rampage launched by three people inspired by the Islamic State group in which eight people died.
Police said Khan was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offences and released in December 2018 “on licence”, which means he had to meet certain conditions or face recall to prison. Several British media outlets reported he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
Khan was reported to be attending a London event hosted by Learning Together — a Cambridge-based organisation that works to educate prisoners — when he launched the attack.
Neil Basu, the London police counterterrorism head, said police were not actively looking for any other suspects.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had “long argued” it was a “mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early”.
Johnson, who chaired a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee after the incident, said more police would be patrolling the streets in the coming days “for reassurance purposes”.
Basu said the suspect appeared to be wearing a bomb vest but it turned out to be “a hoax explosive device”.
Dick said officers were called just before 2pm on Friday local time to Fishmongers’ Hall, a conference venue at the north end of London Bridge. The pedestrian and vehicle bridge links the city’s business district with the south bank of the River Thames.
Minutes after the stabbings, witnesses saw a man with a knife being wrestled to the ground by members of the public on the bridge before armed-response officers shot him dead.
Video images showed people spraying the fleeing suspect with a fire extinguisher.
One video depicted a man in suit and overcoat holding a long knife that apparently had been taken from the attacker.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, praised the “breathtaking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger not knowing what confronted him”.
Cars and buses on the bridge stood abandoned after the shooting, with a white truck stopped diagonally across the lanes.
Britain’s terrorism threat level was downgraded in November from “severe” to “substantial”, which means an attack is seen as “likely” rather than “highly likely”.
Britons go to the polls in a general election on December 12. Labour and the Conservatives suspended campaigning in the city after the attack.