Van crash near mosque deadly
As worshippers attend prayers, vehicle veers into London crowd
LONDON — A vehicle struck pedestrians early this morning near a mosque in north London, killing one person and causing several casualties, police said.
The Muslim Council tweeted that worshippers were struck by a van as they were leaving prayers near the Finsbury Park mosque. It said its prayers are with the victims.
One person was arrested. The London Ambulance Service said the injured were taken to hospitals. Eyewitnesses reported seeing police give emergency medical treatment to at least one of the injured. London police said one person died, and the nation’s Counter Terrorism Command was investigating.
The neighborhood has two mosques, and several hundred worshippers would have been in the area after attending prayers as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Finsbury Park mosque was associated with extremist ideology for several years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States but was shut down and reorganized. It has not been asso-
Worshippers would have been in the area after attending prayers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
ciated with radical views for more than a decade.
London police have declared the crash a major incident and closed the area to normal traffic. A helicopter circled above the area as a large cordon was established to keep motorists and pedestrians away.
Video posted on social media showed people screaming as bystanders performed chest compressions on one of the injured. Nearby, a man held a bloody cloth to his head.
One woman, who said she lives next to the scene, told the BBC that she had heard yelling and screeching outside her window.
“Everybody was shouting: ‘A van's hit people, a van’s hit people,’ ” she said.
Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the scene on Seven Sisters Road at 12:20 a.m. local time today.
Britain’s terrorist alert has been set at “severe” meaning an attack is highly likely.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s office says she has been told about the crash in north London in which a vehicle struck several pedestrians.
May described the crash early this morning as a “terrible incident.”
She said, “All my thoughts are with those who have been injured, their loved ones and the emergency services on the scene.”
Earlier this month, a van veered into pedestrians on London Bridge, setting off vehicle and knife attacks that killed eight people and wounded many others on the bridge and in the nearby Borough Market area. Three Muslim extremists who carried out the attack were killed by police.
Manchester was also hit by a severe attack when a bomber killed more than 20 people at an Ariana Grande concert.