Teenager stabbed in ‘far-right terrorist attack’
DETECTIVES were last investigating an alleged far-right terror attack in Surrey after a teenager was stabbed amid a spate of racist incidents across Britain in the wake of the New Zealand massacre.
The 19-year-old victim was said to have been attacked by a man armed with a knife and a baseball bat, who it is claimed was shouting racist comments. The incident took place in Stanwell at 10.30pm on Saturday. The victim was rushed to hospital with what police said were non-life threatening injuries.
A 50-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and racially aggravated public order offences. Witnesses claimed the man had been shouting “death to Muslims” and “white supremacy” as he launched attacks on passing cars in the street.
Last night, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the UK’S head of counterterror policing, confirmed that the incident had the hallmarks of a far-right inspired terror event.
It comes just two days after a white supremacist murdered 50 people in two mosque attacks in New Zealand, and is one of several far-right incidents that have been reported across Britain in the last 48 hours.
Last night, Theresa May said: “My thanks to the emergency services for their handling of the terrorist incident in Stanwell. My thoughts are with the injured man, and his family and friends. Vile, hateful far-right extremism has no place in our society.”
Residents in Viola Avenue, a cul-desac in Stanwell, which is less than two miles from Heathrow’s Terminal 4, contacted police after hearing a man shouting racist comments in the street.
Armed police raced to the scene and a short time later discovered the victim who had received stab wounds.
One local, whose vehicle was attacked, said: “He was dressed all in green and was wearing a balaclava…he was yelling something and came at my car with a knife. I thought ‘I am in trouble if I don’t get out of here’.”
Friends Adam Miles and Ryan Gibbs,
both 21, were in a car when the suspect “jumped out at them in the middle of the road’” with “a huge knife”.
Mr Miles said: “He randomly turned on us and ran in front of the car and started hitting the car with the knife. He smashed the bodywork.”
Last night, the Counter Terrorism Police South East unit was leading the investigation into the attack.
Mr Basu said: “Whilst this investigation is still in its infancy, it has hallmarks of a terror event, inspired by the far-right, and therefore it has been declared a terrorism incident.”
The attack will only increase concern among Britain’s Muslim community following a spate of worrying incidents over the weekend.
Detectives in Whitechapel, east London, were investigating a serious assault on a 27-year-old man who was attacked by three people who had been making anti-muslim comments.
Three people were also in custody in Manchester following incidents in which allegedly offensive remarks were made to people in relation to the New Zealand terror attack.
A 33-year-old woman and a 34-yearold man were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences after a taxi driver was allegedly threatened and abused.
Separately, a 39-year-old woman from Rochdale and a 24-year-old man from Oldham were arrested on suspicion of posting offensive comments online about the New Zealand atrocity. In Oxford, swastikas were sprayed on the wall of school, along with comments which appeared to be a reference to the Christchurch shootings.
Sir Mark Rowley, who used to head up Britain’s counter-terrorism response until his retirement last year, yesterday warned that we must be “less tolerant of intolerance on social media”.
He said the failure to regulate the internet had allowed people who promote hatred to flourish unchecked.
Writing alongside Dame Louise Casey, the Government’s former integration tsar, he said: “We should be much less tolerant of intolerance in the Wild West of the internet and social media.
“Timidity over using regulation to assert what we stand for only allows the intolerant who support violent extremism to grow their cults.
“In counterterrorism we can’t just build bigger barriers in front of mosques, synagogues and public buildings.”