At least 2 killed in London stabbings Friday

LONDON >> A man wearing a fake explosive vest stabbed several people Friday in London, killing two in what police are treating as a terrorist attack before being tackled by members of the public and then fatally shot by officers on London Bridge.

Police said the attacker was Usman Khan, a 28-year-old who was released on probation last year after serving six years for terrorism offenses.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cressida Dick said two stabbing victims had died and three injured people were being treated in hospitals after the attack, which unfolded just yards from the site of

a deadly 2017 van and knife rampage.

Health officials said one of the injured was in critical but stable condition, one was stable and the third had less serious injuries.

Police said Khan was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offenses and released in December 2018 “on license,” which means he had to meet

certain conditions or face recall to prison. Several British media outlets reported that he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.

Basu said Khan was attending a London event hosted by Learning Together — a Cambridge-based organization that works to educate prisoners — when he launched the attack, killing a man and a woman and injuring three others.

The attacker’s history will raise difficult questions for Britain’s government

and security services. Neil Basu, the London police counterterrorism head, said police were not actively looking for any other suspects.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had “long argued” that it was a “mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early.”

“It is very important that we get out of that habit and that we enforce the appropriate sentences for dangerous criminals, especially for

terrorists, that I think the public will want to see,” he said.

Johnson, who chaired a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee late Friday, said more police would be patrolling the streets in the coming days “for reassurance purposes.”

The violence erupted less than two weeks before Britain holds a national election. The main pollical parties temporarily suspended campaigning in London as a mark of respect.

Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Neil Basu said the suspect appeared to be wearing a bomb vest but it turned out to be “a hoax explosive device.”

Dick, the police chief, said officers were called just before 2 p.m. to Fishmongers’ Hall, a conference venue at the north end of London Bridge. The pedestrian and vehicle bridge links the city’s business district with the south bank of the River Thames.