UK – Terrorism | London police plead for calm after attack at mosque

Police officers talk with local people at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians yesterday

London police, already stretched by a series of major incidents around the capital, are putting more officers on the street to reassure the public after a driver plowed into a crowd of people leaving a mosque yesterday. One man died at the scene and 10 people were injured.

Police say a suspect was arrested immediately after the attack, which is being treated as a terrorist incident.

“Extra officers are on duty in the area to help reassure the local community,” Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said. “They will be there for as long as they are needed. Communities will see additional officers patrolling across the city and at Muslim places of worship.”

Police said the 48-year-old man who was driving the van has been arrested and taken to a hospital as a precaution. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. It was not immediately clear why no charge had been made in relation to the one death.

The attack will stretch the capacity of authorities in Britain, who have faced four attacks in recent months, together with a major fire that has killed dozens. London›s Mayor Sadiq Mayor Khan, the first Muslim to serve in that position, urged the public to focus on shared values and urged the city to stand together in an unprecedented period in the capital’s history.

“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,” he said. “The situation is still unfolding and I urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant.”

Eyewitnesses told British media that the van seemed to have veered and hit people intentionally. Sky News reported that the mosque’s imam prevented the crowd from beating the attacker until police arrived.

Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organization, said that based on eyewitness reports, it seems to be a “deliberate attack against innocent Muslims.”

The Finsbury Park mosque was associated with extremist ideology for several years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, but was shut down and reorganized. It has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.

It is located a short walk away from Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal football club in north London.

Prime Minister Theresa May has responded to complaints from some in the Muslim community that police failed to quickly respond to the attack on the north London mosque and declare it terrorism.

Speaking outside her Downing Street office later yesterday, May said officers responded to the attack in one minute and declared it a terror attack within eight minutes.

May says hatred and evil of this kind will never succeed and she says the government will “stop at nothing” to defeat extremism.

Britain’s terrorist alert has been set at “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely. AP