Rise of deadly vehicle terrorism
VEHICLE attacks by Islamic State-inspired killers have claimed more than 120 lives in the past four years.
Trucks, vans and cars have emerged as the new weapons of choice for terrorists, with yesterday’s carnage in Barcelona the latest in a string of vehicle atrocities.
Ploughing into crowds of innocents to slaughter and maim is the only tactic involved with this deadly new form of terrorism.
The gruesome scenes in Barcelona yesterday brought back memories of the horrors of this year’s London Bridge and Westminster attacks.
Last night there were concerns that the carnage in Spain could trigger further atrocities across Europe.
Drummer Lee Rigby was an early victim of a vehicle attack when he was mown down by a car in Woolwich, south London, in May 2013. Two men leapt out and hacked him to death in front of stunned onlookers.
In July last year, Mohamed Bouhlel massacred 86 people and left 458 injured as he drove a 19-ton truck into Bastille Day crowds in Nice, France.
Bouhlel was shot dead police.
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Terror came to Berlin last December when Anis Amri drove into shoppers at a Christmas market, killing 12 and leaving 56 wounded.
Amri escaped but was shot dead four days later in a shootout with police in Milan.
In January, four Israeli soldiers were killed and nine injured when a lorry crashed into them while they were sight-seeing in Jerusalem. The killer died in a hail of bullets at the scene. On March 22 this year, “lone wolf” Khalid Masood brought terror to Parliament as he drove at speed across Westminster Bridge.
Masood killed four pedestrians before he crashed his car and ran towards Parliament.
PC Keith Palmer tried to stop him and was stabbed to death. Masood was then gunned down by a police officer.
The killer’s car about 50 injured.
Three weeks later, Rakhmat Akilov killed four people and injured 15 when he drove a lorry into a department store in Stockholm, Sweden.
Akilov, from Uzbekistan, was caught and claimed he was seeking revenge for the bombing of Syria.
Three killers in a rented van struck at London Bridge on the night of June 3 this year. Ringleader rampage left Khuram Butt killed three people by ploughing into them on the bridge.
Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba then leapt from the van and hacked five other victims to death with knives.
The three killers, who wore realistic-looking “suicide belts”, were shot dead by police.
About 50 people were wounded in the attack, including have-a-go heroes who took on the terrorists.
Two weeks later, a Muslim man died after he was hit by a van outside Finsbury Park Mosque, north London.
Nine of his fellow worshippers were injured.
A man has been charged with terrorism-inspired murder.
In the aftermath of the London Bridge attack, security experts said the Westminster atrocity may have inspired other terrorists.