3 injured in mosque ‘racist attack’ as car is driven into crowd
A HIT- AND- RUN driver ploughed into a crowd of worshippers outside an Islamic centre in what police described as a ‘racist hate crime’.
The motorist and three passengers were said to have shouted ‘terrorists’ and ‘dirty Muslims’ before the car twice mounted the busy pavement at 12.30am yesterday.
Police said it was ‘ extremely fortunate’ no one died in the attack as families made their way home from a lecture outside the Al Majlis Al-Hussaini mosque in north-west London.
Two men in their 20s suffered minor wounds and a man in his 50s is in hospital with a serious leg injury, Scotland Yard said.
One man told how he saved the life of an eight-year-old boy by grabbing him out the way of the red Nissan Juke as it hurtled towards them at nearly 35mph. Ali Mashkour described the ‘cracking noises’ seconds later as the vehicle launched the eldest victim nearly 7ft into the air. Up to 100 bystanders gave chase to the vehicle as other witnesses told how they were just ‘milliseconds from being mowed down’ when the car raced down the road and began ‘hitting people like dominoes’.
A security guard said at least 15 people could have been killed were it not for cars parked on the side of the street protecting most of the 1,500 worshippers.
The three men and one woman inside the 4x4 – who were all white and in their 20s – are believed to have been drinking and taking drugs. The occupants were said to have confronted worshippers after being asked to leave a private car park by security minutes earlier.
Witnesses told how they hurled racist abuse at worshippers, shouting ‘dirty Muslims’ and ‘Muslim terrorists’, before driving into the crowd and fleeing. There have been no arrests.
Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Simon Rose said: ‘We were extremely fortusaw nate there was no loss of life. It is being dealt with as an Islamophobic hate crime.’ Mustafa AlBalaghi, an associate of the mosque, said: ‘It was pandemonium and chaos outside. There was screaming and shouting, people were warning each other to get out of the road.’ Mr Mashkour, a volunteer at the centre, said: ‘I was observing the families leave when I suddenly heard glass breaking, the screeching of tires, and an engine revving.
‘At first I thought it was just kids just trying to show off. But I realised quickly it wasn’t when I it suddenly swerve to the right and aim for the pavement. Instinctively I saw this kid on my right-hand side, so I grabbed him, and threw him out of the way. I jumped out the way as well. ‘Then, right in front of me, an older guy was launched completely airborne, six or seven foot in the air. I can remember now all the cracking noises as it hit. He landed back on the vehicle, the top half of his body on the bonnet, but the car kept going and he was dragged across.
‘I thought the driver was mentally ill or lost control. But when he then went up and mounted the pavement again, I realised, “jeez, we are being attacked”.’
Ali Salmna, 33, from East London, said: ‘The driver was aiming at people. I managed to jump in between two cars and the parked cars acted as a barrier which saved many lives. The car was bouncing off the other parked cars and there must have been 50 to 100 people chasing it down the street. ‘It was a terrorist attack. It was an attack on our community fuelled by hatred – he [the driver] knew what he was doing.’ Hassan Naddi, head of security at the Islamic centre, said: ‘The car drove towards the crowd and someone shouted out the window, “dirty Muslim”.’ Detectives are now analysing CCTV in a bid to trace the driver and the incident was not being treated as terror attack, the Met Police said.
‘Cracking noises as it hit’