EVERYDAY HEROES
Terrorist kills 2 on London Bridge Tackled by public & slain by cops Pummeled by fists, feet – & a tusk
An attacker with two knives and a fake suicide vest stabbed multiple people on London Bridge yesterday, until a group of ordinary people stopped his rampage and one man (at left) wrested one knife away from him. The terrorist, who killed two, was shot dead by police. Meanwhile, three people were wounded in another knife attack at The Hague, Netherlands. That attacker was at large as of last night.
A paroled terrorist killed two people and wounded three in a stabbing attack near London Bridge on Friday, but his rampage was halted by six brave civilians armed with anything they could grab — including a 5-foot-long narwhal tusk.
After the civilians tackled him to the pavement on the north end of the bridge, London police finished the job.
Video obtained by The Post shows the moment cops fired two shots into the Islamist zealot, identified as Usman Khan, 28, of Staffordshire, who died on the spot.
Khan, who was believed to be acting alone, was wearing what turned out to be a a fake suicide bomb vest, officials said.
He was also wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet from his release from prison for joining in a nine-man, 2010 al Qaeda-inspired plot to blow up London targets including the American Embassy, Big Ben, the Stock Exchange and Westminster Abbey.
At his sentencing for preparing acts of terrorism, Khan, then 19, was singled out by a judge as one of “the more serious jihadists” in the plot, the Telegraph reported.
The judge had recommended that he and two others in the group not be released from prison until they are fully rehabilitated, the Guardian reported.
Still, after serving only half his 16-year sentence, Khan was sprung from prison about a year ago with electronic monitoring, the Telegraph reported, citing anonymous government sources.
On Friday, Khan began his attack just before 2 p.m. near the bridge, which links the city’s business district to the south bank of the River Thames.
Khan had been at a Cambridge University-hosted criminal justice event at a venue called Fishmongers’ Hall.
He had attended workshops and shared his experiences of prisoner rehabilitation, police said.
But after lunch, Khan began stabbing attendees with two large knives, one of which was duct taped to his hand, according to reports.
The victims who died were a man and a woman who were believed to have also attended the event, the Telegraph said.
Two women and a man were wounded.
Video footage posted to social media shows Khan running afterward onto London Bridge near the hall — pursued by one man carrying a fire extinguisher, and a second brandishing a long narwhal tusk he’d pulled from a wall display at the artifactsfilled Fishmongers’ Hall.
As the f irst man blasted Khan with the fire extinguisher, the second poked him with the tusk.
“A guy who was with us at Fishmongers Hall took a 5’ narwhal tusk from the wall and went out to confront the attacker,” witness Amy Coop, aka @theamycoop, tweeted.
“You can see him standing over the man (with what looks like a white pole) in the video.”
Another of the good Samaritans to help disarm Khan was James Ford, 42, a convicted murderer out on day release, the Daily Mail reported.
“I don’t care what he’s done today, he’s a murderer,” said Angela Cox, 65, whose disabled niece, Amanda, was slashed and strangled by Ford in 2004.
Khan was struggling with six men, all civilians, when police with submachine guns swarmed the chaotic scene.
“He was shouting, ‘Get off me, get off me,’ ” recalled another of the heroes, a tour guide identified by Agence France-Presse as Stevie Hurst.
The guide had seen the tumult while driving by, he told the Telegraph. So he parked his car and ran toward the scrum.
“I jumped in and kicked him in the head to make him release his knife,” Hurst said. “I was just trying to do as much as I could do to get him to release the knife.”
The men rolled the attacker onto his back, and his coat opened, revealing what looked like a bomb vest — but still, the civilians kept grappling with him.
“Get the f- -k back!” the arriving cops shouted at the heroes, Hurst recalled.
Video shows one of the good Samaritans, dressed in a suit and tie, retreating at a trot and nervously looking around while gingerly holding one of the knives.
“It looked like there was a fight going on, people sort of tussling with each other, and then you realize it was police wrestling with one man,” said witness Kirsten Jones, who was on a bus going over the bridge.
“Then there were two shots, or two loud pops, and I also saw a dispensed Taser and then the guy was lying on the floor,” she told the BBC.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the civilians’ courage, citing the video of the chaos, which included footage taken from the back of a double-decker bus that was traveling on the bridge.
“What’s remarkable about the images we’ve seen is the breathtaking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger, not knowing what confronted them,” Khan said.
“It’s another example of the bravery and heroism of ordinary Londoners running towards danger, risking their own personal safety to try and save others.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was mayor of London when Usman Khan and his fellow terrorists drew up their list of London targets back in 2010 — a list which also included Johnson’s home.
On Friday night, Johnson said he had “long argued” that it was a “mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early and it is very important that we get out of that habit and that we enforce the appropriate sentences for dangerous criminals, especially for terrorists.”
London Bridge was the site of another deadly terrorist attack two years ago, when three Islamic militants plowed a van into pedestrians on the span before running out and stabbing people in nearby bars and eateries on June 3, 2017.
Eight people were killed and 48 wounded. The three terrorists were shot dead by police.
The White House condemned the attack and pledged “full support to our ally, the United Kingdom.” spokesman Judd Deere said.
“President Trump has been briefed on this morning’s attack at the London Bridge and is monitoring the situation,” Deere said in a statement.