A man has died and eight others have been injured after a van ploughed into a group of people near a north London mosque in an attack police are treating as terrorism.
A 48-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Two people hit by the van were said to be “very seriously injured”.
The prime minister, Theresa May, who was woken to be told of the early morning attack in Finsbury Park, said in a statement from Downing Street that the “hatred and evil” of the kind seen in the attack would never succeed.
May said the attack had “once again targeted the ordinary and the innocent going about their daily lives – this time, British Muslims as they left a mosque, having broken their fast and prayed together at this sacred time of year”.
She added: “Today we come together, as we have done before, to condemn this act and to state once again that hatred and evil of this kind will never succeed.”
May said the attack on Muslims was “every bit as insidious and destructive to our values and our way of life” as the recent string of attacks apparently motivated by Islamist extremism, adding: “We will stop at nothing to defeat it.”
It is the fourth terrorist attack to hit the UK in the past three months.
Deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the van hit a crowd of people who had gathered around a man who had collapsed on the pavement.
Basu said it was too early to say whether the man’s death was a direct result of the attack.
“No matter what the motivation proves to be, and we are keeping an open mind, this is being treated as a terrorist attack and the counter-terrorism command is investigating.
“This was an attack on London and all Londoners and we should all stand together against extremists whatever their cause.”
Witnesses said the man who died had been taken ill outside the Muslim Welfare House, a few hundred metres away from Finsbury Park mosque.
A small crowd had gathered round to try and help him when the van was driven into them at around 12.20am.
One witness said he and his friends had stopped to help the “elderly man” who was lying on the ground.
“In seconds this terrible thing happened,”’ he said. “Literally within a minute, a van with speed, turned to where we were and ran over the man who was laying on the floor and the people around him, around eight people or 10 people got injured, some of them seriously. Thank God I’m safe, but my friends got injured.”
Witnesses said the driver then got out of the van and shouted “I want to kill Muslims” before onlookers pinned him to the ground.
Abdikadar Warfa, said he and and others caught hold of the van driver, who threw kicks and punches as he tried to escape. He said: “He tried to run away, he tried to escape. Some people were hitting him. He was fighting to run away.”
One witness, who gave his name only as Abdulrahman, said: “I managed to get [the suspect] to the ground, and me and some other guys managed to hold him until the police arrived, for about 20 minutes I think, until the police arrived.
“People were very upset, people were shouting, people were saying ‘where’s the police, where’s the ambulance?’ People were saying ‘keep him on the ground’. People were asking questions, saying ‘why did you do this?’ People were laying down on the floor.”
Abdulrahman said the driver shouted “kill me” as he held his head on the ground.
“I said, ‘Tell me why did you try driving to kill innocent people?’ When he went into the [police] van he made gestures, he was laughing. He deliberately did this. He caused this incident.”
Police confirmed that members of public had detained the suspected driver and praised Mohammed Mahmoud, an imam, for his attempts to calm the chaotic situation and calls for people not to harm the attacker.
Basu said: “Their restraint in the circumstances was commendable.”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, denounced the incident as “a horrific terrorist attack on innocent people. We don’t yet know the full details, but this was clearly a deliberate attack on innocent Londoners, many of whom were finishing prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.
“While this appears to be an attack on a particular community, like the terrible attacks in Manchester, Westminster and London Bridge, it is also an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom and respect.”
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said: “London is a city of many faiths and many nationalities. An attack on one community is an attack on all of us.
“Terrorists will not succeed in their attempts to divide us and make us live in fear. Extra officers are on duty in the area to help reassure the local community. They will be there for as long as they are needed.”
The vehicle involved in the attack was hired from Pontyclun Van Hire in south Wales. A woman who answered the phone on Monday at the hire company’s offices said: “We’re not allowed to make any comment.”
The Muslim Council of Britain’s secretary general, Harun Khan, , said: “During the night, ordinary British citizens were set upon while they were going about their lives, completing their night worship. My prayers are with the victims and their families.”
The incident happened in the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North constituency. He released a statement on Twitter expressing his shock:
He later visited the mosque, saying that the apparent targeting of the Muslim community at the height of Ramadan had shocked the community.
“A lot of the time people are saying Islamophobia isn’t real, but this time it’s actually killed someone and injured others … There are kids who grew up (watching this) on TV and never expected it to happen in their own backyard.”
The Finsbury Park attack comes after two attacks in London in which pedestrians were struck by vehicles. The first was in Westminster in March and and the second was a fortnight ago in London Bridge. In May a suicide bomber targeted a pop concert in Manchester, killing 23 people.
The latest attack took place during Ramadan, and worshippers were out on the streets in the Finsbury Park area, which is home to two mosques.
Among Britain’s Muslim communities there are fears they are being targeted for Islamophobic hate crimes and that the authorities do not take such incidents seriously enough.
A spike in hate crimes was reported after the London Bridge attack. Security officials and senior police officers are in private acutely aware of the need to protect Muslim communities from any backlash. Extremists on the far right and those following jihadist ideology want to drive a wedge between British Muslims and other communities.
(TheGuardian Uk)
