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Monday, February 3, 2020
On Sunday, a man wearing a fake suicide vest entered a store, grabbed a large knife, ran outside and began to stab people, injuring two on Streatham High Road, London, according to authorities. He was chased on foot by armed plainclothes officers, who were keeping him under surveillance for counter-terrorism, before shooting him dead outside a Boots store at 14:00 UTC on what the police declared a “terrorist-related” attack.
An eyewitness told PA news agency how the attack unfolded: “I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer,” he added. “The man was then shot. I heard three gunshots.”
Two woman and one man were injured, according to the reports. The man was initially listed in critical condition but is no longer so, a woman had minor injuries from broken glass after police discharged their firearms and was released from hospital, and the last woman was in “not life-threatening” condition and continues to receive treatment.
The terrorist, identified as Sudesh Amman (20), was under police surveillance after being released from prison a week ago. He was imprisoned aged 18 in 2018, and served half his sentence for 13 seperate terror offences.
Sudesh Amman, who was described as “knife-obssessed” by the police, sent his girlfriend beheadings videos and islamist extremist text messages, and advised her to kill her “kuffar” (disbeliever) parents.
He told her on one occasion: “If you can’t make a bomb because family, friends or spies are watching or suspecting you, take a knife, molotov, sound bombs or a car at night and attack the tourists (crusaders), police and soldiers of taghut, or western embassies in every country you are in this planet.”
| Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life — here in London we will never let them succeed. | ||
Alexis Boon, the head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said about Amman: “His fascination with dying in the name of terrorism was clear in a notepad we recovered from his home. Amman had scrawled his ‘life goals’ in the notepad and top of the list, above family activities, was dying a martyr and going to ‘Jannah’ – the afterlife.
“It’s not clear how Amman became radicalised but it is apparent from his messages that it had been at least a year in development. Whatever the circumstances, this case is a reminder of the need to be vigilant to signs of radicalisation and report it.”
On further investigations in his family home in London, police also recovered a black flag, air gun, and a bomb-making guidebook.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, thanked “the police, security and emergency services staff for their swift and courageous response.”
“Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life,” said Khan, “here in London we will never let them succeed.”
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, responded on Twitter: “Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.”