FREED TO GO ON RAMPAGE
● Jihadist who knifed 2 tracked by officers after early release ● He’s shot dead in street while wearing a fake suicide vest
ARMED police have shot dead a terrorist in a fake suicide vest after he went on the rampage with a stolen £3.99 kitchen knife.
Sudesh Amman, 19, was being followed by officers when he took the 6in blade from a budget high-street store and stabbed two people. Last night one victim was fighting for life.
Amman, left, had been released from jail days ago after serving just half of his sentence for sharing extremist material.
A TERRORIST in a fake suicide vest who stabbed two people with a stolen £3.99 kitchen knife has been shot dead by police.
Sudesh Amman swiped the 6in blade from a budget shop, took off the wrapping, and then went on the rampage.
The knifeman, 19, – who was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is greatest” in Arabic – was gunned down by officers outside a Boots branch in Streatham High Road, south London.
Amman, from Harrow, north west
London, had just been released from prison days ago, where he had been serving a sentence for the possession and distribution of extremist material.
Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said: “Two people were stabbed in Streatham High Road.
“Armed officers were in immediate attendance and shot a male suspect. A third person also received minor injuries – believed to have been caused by glass following the discharge of the police firearm.
“A device was found strapped to the body of the suspect. It was quickly established that this was a hoax device.
“One man is being treated as lifethreatening, one woman has non-life threatening injuries and another woman has minor injuries. The inci
dent was quickly declared as a terrorist incident and we believe it to be Islamist-related.”
Amman launched his attack after stealing a knife from the Low Price Store in Streatham High Road.
London Ambulance Service strategic commander Graham Norton said the first medics had arrived at the scene four minutes after being called at 1.58pm. Three casualties were treated at the scene before being ferried to hospital, the service said.
The Islamist was “under active surveillance” by plain-clothes anti-terror officers when he embarked on his high-street rampage.
He had left prison just days ago after serving half of a more than three-year sentence. A Whitehall source said:
“He was under surveillance, that is what allowed police to do their job so quickly. It could have been much worse than it was. There had been concerns when he was in prison but there were no powers for any authority to keep him behind bars.”
Sam Armstrong, from the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, said the society had warned that Amman should not be let out of prison. Footage showed officers holding handguns were instantly on the scene as the carnage unfolded.
In a video clip taken by a bystander, two Scotland Yard Counter Terror officers wearing jeans and casual black jackets can be seen standing over the assailant pointing guns at him.
Amman’s body is quickly surrounded by three armed officers after the shots were fired. Shortly afterwards, another officer appears to arrive on an unmarked motorbike.
A separate video shows the firearms specialists in casual clothes patrolling the street after leaping out of unmarked cars. The vehicles are left in the middle of the busy street as they shout instructions for shoppers and passers-by to stand clear.
Moments later, official police vehicles arrived and uniformed officers become involved.
And last night it emerged that a property on a list of approved bail hostels for released prisoners half a mile away from the attack was at the centre of a police raid.