Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Do not touch my body
What blood-soaked suspect in burka screamed at medics Witnesses tell of dramatic moment cops stormed house
A WOMAN shot by a marksman during a police raid on an “active terror plot” shouted “don’t touch me, my body, don’t touch my dress”, as paramedics treated her.
The 20-year-old female suspect, who was wearing a burka, was one of six people arrested in a counter-terror operation after a team of specialist firearms officers stormed an address in Willesden, North West London.
Also arrested was Mohamed Amoudi, 21, who was stopped two years ago in Turkey with two sixth-form students amid fears they were heading to Syria to join Islamic State.
Amoudi, who was born in Yemen, was brought back to the UK and arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, but released without charge in 2015. He was held by armed police on Thursday evening, along with four other people, including a 16-yearold boy.
The 20-year-old female who was shot was taken away on a stretcher in her blood-soaked burka. Ruth Haile, who lives in the road, said she heard shots and saw an injured woman being treated. Ms Haile said: “She shouted, ‘don’t touch me, my body, don’t touch my dress’, as paramedics tended to her.”
Alexandra Sabanov, a mum-of-one who lives next door to the raided house, saw officers with “gas masks” and “snipers”.
She said: “We heard, ‘bang, bang, bang, bang’, went to the window and just saw a number of armed police there with their guns pointing at our next-door neighbour’s window.” She said the woman was “screaming really loud” and described her neighbours as a “standard Muslim couple” of whom she “never suspected anything at all”. Video footage showed the moment elite Met officers smashed through the door and then threw in CS canisters. At least six shots rang out, including two that shattered an upstairs window.
The raids came just a few hours after a man was arrested close to Downing Street carrying a rucksack packed with knives. Scotland Yard said the two cases were unrelated.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, of Counter Terror Policing, said the Willesden operation had foiled an
“active plot”. It is understood detectives and security service officers had been watching the flat as part of an ongoing counter-terrorism operation – and decided to strike after receiving specific intelligence.
Two of the arrests were made when a man and a woman, both aged 28, returned to the address. A 43-year-old woman was also held in Kent. Amoudi was arrested after getting off a bus in Willesden High Road.
Social media footage shows a woman wearing a burka on the same bus being dragged away by police. She was not arrested and was released after being “spoken to”, the Met said.
Amoudi was brought back from Turkey to Britain with two 17-year-olds in 2015. They were caught after the parents of the younger boys made a desperate plea for help to the police and a local councillor. All three were later released with no further action.
Amoudi, who was studying engineering and science at Queen Mary University of London, was part of an evangelical group called Strivin Muslims, which is thought to be how he met the pupils who attended two different schools in Wembley. The imam of the Darul Taclim Cultural Centre, 500 yards from the Willesden flat, said: “He has been coming to the mosque since he came back from Turkey.
“He was quiet, did not cause any trouble. He was a student, so he did not come to prayers every day.
“I tell all the young people we must not cause trouble in this country. There is the freedom to worship here. We have freedom, why make trouble?”
Amoudi’s neighbour Caroline Franklin described him as a friendly man who offered to do odd jobs for her.
She said: “He seems like a lovely man. He has asked to do my gardening.”
DAC Basu said yesterday: “Due to these arrests that have been made yesterday, in both cases, I believe we have contained the threats they posed.”
He added that the shot woman’s condition was “serious but stable”.