Two terror attacks on streets of Europe
Ten injured as man plows van into worshippers near London’s Finsbury Park Mosque Suspect on security watchlist rams car loaded with guns into police van in Paris
Ten people were injured when a van plowed into worshippers near north London’s Finsbury Park Mosque in the early hours of Monday morning, in what UK Prime Minister Theresa May said was a “sickening” terrorist attack on Muslims.
The vehicle, reportedly driven by father-of-four Darren Osborne, swerved into a group of mainly North and West African people shortly after midnight as they left prayers at the Muslim Welfare House near the mosque.
Osborne, a 47-year-old white man, was grabbed at the scene by locals and pinned down until police arrived. He was held on suspicion of attempted murder, a charge later extended to preparing or instigating terrorism, including murder and attempted murder.
After being seized, Osborne said he had wanted to kill “many Muslim people,” one witness told journalists.
A man, who had apparently suffered a heart attack before the incident, died at the scene, but it was not clear if his death was a result of the van attack.
Finsbury Park Mosque Chairman Mohammed Kozbar told Arab News that security will be tightened at the mosque, and at other mosques around the country.
Kozbar said that Prime Minister Theresa May had promised him there would be additional “measures and actions.”
Local resident Idil told Arab News the attack was a surprise to everyone, but did not want it to change how the area is run: “We don’t want to live in a police state. It won’t work having security here every day. You need to get to the root of the issues.”
In Paris, a 31-year-old man on an extremist watchlist on Monday rammed a car loaded with guns and a gas bottle into a police van on the Champs-Elysees but inflicted no casualties.
The assailant died in the incident, although investigators offered no immediate details about the cause of his death. There was no early claim of responsibility for the assault.
The attack — which occurred just a short distance from where an attacker shot dead a police officer, two months earlier — was carried out by an individual who had been on France’s security watchlist since 2015 for membership of “the radical Islamist movement,” sources close to the probe said.
They identified him as Djaziri Adam Lotfi, who had been raised in the hardline Salafi Islamic ideology, and did not have a criminal record.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said a car hit the leading vehicle in a line of police vans as they headed down the Champs-Elysees, near the Grand Palais exhibition hall.
“The security forces have been targeted in France once again,” he said.
Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the car, a white Renault Megane, caught fire.
Video showed a thick orange smoke pouring from the car after the impact as the vehicle sat in the middle of the prestigious avenue, which is lined with shops and cinemas.
Police sources told AFP that they found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, two handguns as well as a gas bottle on the car.
The “arms, explosives... could potentially blow this car up,” Collomb said. Sources previously told AFP that there were multiple gas bottles in the car.
No police or bystanders were injured in the incident, which occurred near the Grand Palais exhibition hall.
LONDON: Two terror attacks with different targets struck in Europe on Monday, in the latest of a string of extremist assaults on the continent.