TERROR COPS PROBE MOSQUE ATTACK
MAN DIES AS LONDON HIT BY ANOTHER VAN HORROR
AMAN has died and several others were injured after a van driver deliberately drove at worshippers leaving a mosque in London.
The early morning terrorist attack on the group of worshippers happened near the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London today.
Witnesses described hearing a white man shout: “I’m going to kill Muslims”.
That man was detained by members of the public at the scene and he has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: “This is being treated as a terrorist attack.”
Mr Basu said all of the casualties are Muslims with eight people in hospital and two others treated at the scene.
He said: “The attack unfolded whilst a man was receiving first aid from the public at the scene; sadly, he has died. Any causative link between his death and the attack will form part of our investigation. It is too early to state if his death was as a result of the attack.”
The attacker struck as the area was busy with worshippers at- tending Ramadan night prayers at the mosque.
One witness described being surrounded by bodies in the wake of the attack outside the nearby Muslim Welfare House.
Another witness said: “I managed to get the driver of the van. He wanted to run away and was saying ‘I want to kill Muslims’.
“So he came back to the main road and I managed to get him to the ground, and me and some other guys managed to hold him until the police arrived, for about 20 minutes I think, until the police arrived.”
The witness claimed the driver said ‘Kill me’, as he was being held on the ground.
Mr Basu thanked members of the public who detained the driver, saying “their restraint in the circumstances was commendable”.
Mr Basu added: “Given the methodology and given what was occurring, what’s happened, the tragic incidents across the country, this had all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident.
“That is why the counter-terrorism command were called out to investigate.”
Video posted online of the aftermath of today’s attack showed a scene of chaos as people tried to help the injured.
One man could been seen giving CPR to a victim in the street, while another man’s head injury was treated with a makeshift dressing.
People could be heard shouting and screaming amid the chaos, and bloodstains were visible on the pavement.
In one video, a group of men are seen holding the suspect on the ground as they call for the police.
Prime Minister Theresa May was due to chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee to discuss, and was expected to give a statement outside 10 Downing Street afterwards.
The attack comes after a van ploughed into people at London Bridge earlier this month.
The three attackers the carried out a knife rampage in Borough Market, killing eight people.
The perpetrators, Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were shot dead by police.
Last month, 22 people including children were killed by a suicide bomber at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
Lone suicide attacker Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device as crowds of music fans left Manchester Arena.
In March, Five people were killed in a car and knife attack in Westminster.
Khalid Masood drove a hire car over Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, mounted the pavement and hit pedestrians before crashing into railings outside the Palace of Westminster. He stabbed Pc Keith Palmer, 48, to death.
Also killed in the atrocity were US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, and Britons Aysha Frade, 44, and Leslie Rhodes, 75.
Masood was shot dead by police.