‘Fortunately no deaths in car attack at mosque’

IT IS “extremely fortunate” no-one died after a car hit a group of worshippers outside a mosque in an apparent anti-Muslim attack, a senior officer has said.

Three people were struck by the vehicle outside the Al-Majlis Al-Hussaini Islamic centre in Cricklewood, north-west London, following a latenight lecture.

Two men in their twenties suffered minor injuries and a man in his fifties is in hospital with a serious leg injury, Scotland Yard said.

The occupants of the car hurled anti-Muslim insults and abuse before driving at a group leaving the Islamic centre in Oxgate Lane, by Edgware Road, at around 12.30am yesterday, Scotland Yard said.

The occupants, three men and a woman in their mid-twenties, confronted worshippers after being told to leave a private car park by security some minutes earlier.

They are said to have been drinking, taking drugs, and behaving antisocially.

Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Simon Rose said: “The people who had been challenged then drove at members of the community in a car.

“The car mounted the pavement twice. We were extremely fortunate there was no loss of life.

“It is being dealt with as an Islamophobic hate crime.”

Detectives are analysing CCTV in a bid to trace the driver and the incident is not currently being treated as terror matter, the Metropolitan Police said.

The mosque said a red Nissan Juke was “hurtling down” the road and mounted the pavement before swerving into bystanders who were “indiscriminately mown down”.