More London terror?
An armed police officer mans Seven Sisters Road at Finsbury Park, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in London early Monday, leaving several casulties and one arrest , Story,
LONDON — A vehicle drove into pedestrians leaving prayers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan early Monday morning in London near the Finsbury Park Mosque, reviving anxieties in the British capital, which has endured two recent Islamic State-claimed terrorist attacks involving vehicles.
The Metropolitan Police called the Monday event “a major incident” and said a number of casualties were being treated at the scene. At least seven or eight people were injured, according to eyewitnesses in the vibrant, multicultural north London area.
One person has been arrested.
A helicopter circled above the area as a large cordon was established to keep motorists and pedestrians away.
No other details were immediately available.
The incident Monday, which the police were called to at 12:20 a.m., occurred on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, a neighborhood where many immigrants live.
Witnesses on the scene, as well as numerous accounts on social media, said the pedestrians were hit outside the Finsbury Park Mosque — which was once closely associated with extremism but in the past decade has transformed its image, with its leadership outspoken in advocating interfaith harmony — or the close-by Muslim Welfare House, a community center.
Prime Minister Theresa May described the crash as a “terrible incident.”
The statement from her office said her thoughts were with the injured, their loved ones and emergency services who responded to the scene.
Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organization, said that based on eyewitness reports it seems to be a “deliberate attack against innocent Muslims.”
Witnesses reported that a van left the roadway and swerved into a large crowd standing on the sidewalk as people were leaving latenight prayers.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing police give emergency medical treatment to at least one of the injured.
One witness, Mahroof Mohammed, said that most of the victims he saw were male, but he also saw one old woman injured.
“An old man was severely injured,” his walking stick right next to him, Mr. Mohammed, a local businessman, said. “His family said he passed away.”
On social media, witnesses said they believed the victims had been performing Tarawih, the evening prayers performed by Sunni Muslims at night in Ramadan.
The police arrived about 15 to 20 minutes after the incident, Mr. Mohammed said. “It was three local men that were holding the man from the van until police came” and apprehended him, he said.
Mr. Mohammed said that the man was a white male, whose arms were heavily tattooed. He was not saying anything while he was held.
Boubou Sougou, 23, who was leaving a nearby gym at the time of the incident, added: “I saw the attacker attempting to run away but people from the mosque held him back,” he said. “Some of them wanted to beat him up, but were stopped by the ones that were holding him until the police came.”