SUNDAY SHOPPERS They told us all to get out because there was a bomb...
WITNESSES who saw police shoot dead a terrorist were told to flee the area because the jihadist was wearing a bomb vest.
Barber Karker Tahir, who was at work in his shop when he saw knifeman Sudesh Amman go past, said he thought he had been caught up in a film.
Karker said: “They had to shoot him more than two or three times.
“It was like a movie. It was so quick. It was a panic.
“It’s quite frightening and shocking. But thanks to the armed police response that was here on time, everything was in control.
“After they shot him down they had to say ‘leave immediately’ because he has maybe a bomb or something, and then you have to evacuate.”
Karker added: “There were a lot of people, a lot of kids around on a Sunday. This High Street is a very busy area.
“After that I have seen the police in uniform walk to the body and this is when he sees he has something on it and says to us we have to leave and evacuate the entire street.
“We immediately left the area. “He had sort of a vest but I wouldn’t know what was in the vest. It was a light colour.
“When he was shot he was still alive two or three minutes. He was looking up and down but no-one could get close to him because of what he was carrying on him.
“Nobody wanted he had a vest.’’
Another eyewitness, who gave his name as Matthew, was in a nearby vape shop in Streatham when police took out the suspect.
He said: “I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop – five shots.
“Then I saw a body on the pavement. “What got to me was that there was another guy with two massive holdalls shouting very loudly in Arabic.
“I didn’t see what happened to him.’’ Mechanical engineer Nardos Mulugeta, 52, said: “I heard a shot and then there was a 20-second gap.
“Then there were three or four shots together.
“I went over and I saw the first victim, a male, on the ground, near the White Lion pub and people were helping him. to get closer because
Then five minutes later a woman came over and said: ‘I’ve been stabbed too in the back.’ And then people starting helping her.
“I saw one body laying down further away. He was face down between Argos and Iceland. It’s really scary.’’
A 33-year-old woman who lives near the scene said that she was locked in the Odeon cinema for 20 minutes after the attack before being rushed out a fire exit round the back. She said officers came in and ordered everyone to stand away from the windows.
Movie-goers thought the gunshots were a “car backfiring”, she said.
A woman who had run into cinema in terror after witnessing shooting was “shaking with fear”.
“She thought it was a gang shooting because two men were dressed all in black,’’ the witness said.
“She was really shaking. She was quite distressed and was panicking and the the all over the place.’’ Emma Taylor, 31, saw a female stabbing victim being treated by paramedics in the street.
The victim appeared to be in “pure shock”, she added.
Another witness said: “There was panic, people were yelling. A young girl running alongside me kept asking: ‘Is this what I’m meant to do?’ She was very distressed.”