Punjab-origin man tried to snatch knife from terrorist

LONDON: An Indian-origin shopkeeper tried to stop the convicted terrorist from stealing the knife which he used for a stabbing frenzy on a busy high street in south London, before being shot dead by armed police officers during Sunday’s terror attack.

Jagmon Singh was in the shop where convicted terrorist Sudesh Amman stormed in to steal a knife before using it to stab a woman in the back, who has since been discharged from hospital.

The 20-year-old Sri Lankan origin Islamic State (IS) inspired Londoner went on to attack another man, who suffered lifethreatening injuries and remains in hospital but has been declared out of danger.

Jagmon’s brother revealed how his brother tried to grab the knife out of Amman’s grip, believing him to be a shoplifter, before he fled out of the store on Streatham High Road on Sunday. “My brother recognised him because he had come in the week before and didn’t buy anything,” Kiranjeet Singh told the Evening Standard newspaper.

“My brother said he grabbed a ceramic 10-inch kitchen knife that was hanging by the till. He walked in, took the knife, saw nobody was looking and ran out. He removed the packaging then stabbed the woman in the back. It was completely random then he started running,” said the 38-year-old, who owns a low price store on the street.

Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers are carrying out searches in the bail hostel in south London where Amman was lodged after he was released half-way through a sentence under parole conditions.

Amman’s mother Haleema Faraz Khan spoke about her last visit with her son at the hostel last week as she described him as a “polite and lovely boy” who had been “brainwashed” by material he saw online. She said in an interview that her son was radicalised by his time in high security Belmarsh prison.