Van rams worshippers leaving London mosque, killing at least one
A van plowed into worshippers leaving a London mosque on Monday, killing at
least one person and injuring several in what Britain's largest Muslim
organization said was a deliberate act of Islamophobia.
The vehicle hit people as they were leaving the Finsbury Park Mosque, one of
the biggest in the country, the Muslim Council of Britain said. The attack comes
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when people attend prayers at
night.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said police had confirmed it was being
treated as a potential terrorist attack and said she would chair an emergency
response meeting later on Monday.
"All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and the emergency
services on the scene," she said.
Police said one man was pronounced dead at the scene and that the van driver,
48, had been detained by members of the public before being arrested. The driver
would undergo a mental health assessment in due course, police said.
The London Ambulance Service said it had taken eight people to hospital,
while two were treated at the scene.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said extra police had been deployed to
reassure communities, especially those observing Ramadan, describing the attack
as "an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom and respect."
The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said he was
"totally shocked."
The incident comes just over two weeks after three Islamist militants drove
into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed people at nearby restaurants and
bars, killing eight. .
The Muslim Council said Monday's attack was the most violent manifestation of
Islamophobia in Britain in recent months and called for extra security at places
of worship.
"It appears that a white man in a van intentionally plowed into a group of
worshippers who were already tending to someone who had been taken ill," the
council said in a statement.
Police said they were called just after 12:20 a.m. (2320 GMT Sunday) to
reports of a collision on Seven Sisters Road, which runs through the Finsbury
Park area of north London.
"From the window, I started hearing a lot of yelling and screeching, a lot of
chaos outside. … Everybody was shouting: 'A van’s hit people, a van’s hit
people'," one woman who lives opposite the scene told the BBC.
"There was this white van stopped outside Finsbury Park mosque that seemed to
have hit people who were coming out after prayers had finished."
The attack comes at a time of political turmoil, as Prime Minister May
plunges into divorce talks with the European Union weakened by the loss of her
parliamentary majority in a June 8 election.
She has faced heavy criticism for her response to a fire in a London tower
block on Wednesday which killed at least 58 people, and for her record on
security after a series of attacks blamed on Islamist militants in recent
months.
One witness told CNN it was clear that the attacker at Finsbury Park had
deliberately targeted Muslims.
"He tried to kill a lot of people so obviously it's a terrorist attack. He
targeted Muslims this time," the witness, identified only as Rayan, said.
Other witnesses told Sky television that the van had hit at least 10 people.
The Evening Standard newspaper said the van appeared to have been rented in
Wales, although there was no immediate confirmation of this from the
authorities.
'DELIBERATELY SWERVED'
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain,
said the van had deliberately swerved into a group of people who were helping a
man who was ill and had fallen to the ground.
"Basically, a van swerved into them deliberately," Versi told Reuters, citing
a witness.
He said the driver had run out of the van but a group of people caught him
and held him until police arrived.
Britain has been hit by a series of attacks in recent months, including the
van-and-knife attack on London Bridge on June 3.
On March 22, a man drove a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge
in London and stabbed a policeman to death before being shot dead. His attack
killed five people.
On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert by American pop
singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.
The attacks were a factor in campaigning ahead of the June 8 election, with
Prime Minister May criticized for overseeing a drop of 20,000 in the number of
police officers in England and Wales as interior minister from 2010 to 2016.
She was also criticized for keeping her distance from angry residents during
her visit to the charred remains of the 24-story Grenfell Tower. She said on
Saturday the response to the fire had been "not good enough."
The Finsbury Park Mosque gained notoriety more than a decade ago for sermons
by radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison
in January 2015 for his conviction on terrorism-related charges.
A new board of trustees and management took over in February 2005, a year
after Abu Hamza was arrested by British police, since when attendance has
greatly increased among worshippers from various communities, according to the
mosque's website.
Source: Reuters
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