RTFri, 29 Nov 2019 17:27 UTC
The man shot by police on London Bridge has died at the scene, Britain's top counter-terrorism officer told reporters.
The suspect was strapped with a fake bomb and the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
Police shot the suspect dead, after he stabbed multiple people near London Bridge on Friday, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told reporters that afternoon. The man died at the scene.
"This is a terrorist incident," Basu told reporters, adding that investigators believe the man was wearing a hoax explosive vest.
In response, Basu said that the Metropolitan Police would be stepping up patrols in London, and that the area will remain cordoned off for some time, to ensure
"no further danger to the public."After speaking to reporters, Basu traveled to Downing Street to brief Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the situation. Johnson condemned the attack as an
"appalling incident."It is still unclear how many people were stabbed before police ended the attacker's rampage. News reports suggest that at least five people were injured. The attack brought chaos to the busy central London thoroughfare, with police rushing to the bridge and ordering the public to remain indoors.
A group of bystanders managed to tackle and disarm the suspect, and video footage shared on social media showed officers breaking up the scuffle before shooting the man at close range with a submachine gun.
Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has previously been criticized for the terror attacks that have taken place in London under his watch, commended the
"breathtaking heroism" of the bystanders who intervened.
London Bridge was also the scene of a vehicle-ramming and stabbing attack in June 2017, which left 11 people dead.
Comment: And that attack in 2017 just happened to occur one week before the last UK general election...
UPDATE 20:00 CETHere's video footage of the police shooting the suspect dead:
UPDATE 20:30 CETPolice have confirmed the 'stabber-jihadist'
killed two people. Here's a still from video footage of him apparently showing his 'fake suicide vest':
Interestingly, the three 'London Bridge stabber-jihadists' two years ago were also
wearing fake suicide vests:
UPDATE 11:30 CETThe London
Times is
reporting that 'stabber-jihadist' had previously served jail-time for an "Islamist terrorism-related offence," was released from prison about a year ago, and "agreed to wear an electronic tag as part of his bail conditions."
It's been noted in past attacks that 'lone-wolf jihadists' were either 'radicalized' in prison or - more specifically - went on a rampage soon after leaving prison walls.
UPDATE NOV 30Not only was the stabber - 28-year-old
Usman Khan - previously convicted in 2012 for terrorism offenses; the violence began at a Cambridge-sponsored "prisoner rehabilitation" conference where Khan was expected to speak, among other ex-cons...
Khan was released in December of last year. He had apparently plotted to attack the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
Johnson has
pledged to bolster prison sentences for serious crimes as a result: "I think that the practice of automatic, early release where you cut a sentence in half and let really serious, violent offenders out early simply isn't working, and you've some very good evidence of how that isn't working, I am afraid, with this case." Unsurprisingly, the BBC has
backed down from its beef with BoJo - agreeing for him to appear on the Andrew Marr show, even though they had previously said he wouldn't appear unless he agreed to speak with Andrew Neil.
On a lighter note, the fact that one of the citizens who confronted and subdued Khan used a
narwhal tusk has caught the public's attention. The man - a Polish chef named Luckasz - was at the conference with Khan. After Khan started attacking people, Luckasz grabbed the tusk from a wall in the building. He can be seen in the footage brandishing the makeshift spear.
Unsurprisingly, IS laid claim to the knife rampage on Saturday, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which we suppose you could call the PR group for ISIS's PR group, as they're usually the only ones to publish statements from Amaq. SITE Director Rita Katz noted that the attack "bore IS-inspired hallmarks." There is, however, no evidence to support the claim from what the UK police have so far shared with the public.
The claim was broadcast through the group's Amaq News Agency, a propaganda outlet that disseminates its message through apps like Telegram. Europol
announced that it had successfully removed "a significant portion of key actors within the IS network" from the platform. The coordinated effort saw the jihadist-linked accounts being removed from Telegram "at an impressive pace" in the days ahead of the London attack.
UPDATE DEC 1Johnson has
revealed that 74 convicted terrorists are roaming the streets of the UK after being granted early release from prison.
Johnson: "I am sure that people can imagine that what we are doing with the other 74 individuals is to ensure that they are being properly invigilated to ensure that there is no threat and we took that action because we were concerned ... If you are convicted of a serious terrorist offence, there should be a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years - and some should never be released."
Corbyn's
take:
Speaking to Sky on Sunday, veteran peace campaigner Corbyn said people convicted of terrorism offences should "not necessarily" serve their full prison terms because it depended on the circumstances of their imprisonment. "I think there has to be an examination of how our prison services work and, crucially, what happens to them on release from prison." The probation service had failed to monitor Khan after his release...and there should be a "full investigation" into the circumstances around Khan's sentence and subsequent release.
The two victims have now been identified: 23-year-old
Saskia Jones and 25-year-old
Jack Merritt, who worked rehabilitating criminals, and who was coordinating the conference which Khan was attending:
Sometime during the scheduled storytelling and creative writing workshops, Khan's rampage began. Merritt and another woman were stabbed to death, three others were injured, and Khan was subdued by members of the public on London Bridge - which reportedly included some of the convicts attending the workshop - before police officers shot him dead at point blank range. He wore a fake suicide vest under his jacket, and had reportedly threatened to "blow up" the conference building.
Merritt's father described him in a tweet as a "beautiful spirit" and "champion for underdogs everywhere," while colleagues paid tribute to his work with offenders.
Jack "was the sweetest, most caring and selfless individual I've ever met," criminology lecturer Serena Wright said. Suffolk Law Centre Director Audrey Ludwig praised his "deep commitment to prisoner education and rehabilitation."
The father of Jack Merritt said this: "My son, Jack, who was killed in this attack, would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily."
The judge that handed down Khan's prison sentence in 2012
warned that he was a "serious jihadi" who should not be eligible for early release from prison. Here's Khan on the BBC in 2008 after a raid on his apartment:
However, he was arrested two years later for plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange, kill then-Mayor Boris Johnson, bomb a series of London pubs, and establish a terror training camp on family land in Kashmir.
Had my work cancelled tonight due to area being cordoned off.