London
Bridge: attacker had been jailed for al-Qaida inspired bomb plot
Usman Khan
shot dead by police while wearing fake suicide vest
Man and
woman killed in attack on Friday, three others injured
Police
searching Staffordshire address connected to Khan
London
Bridge attack: follow the latest developments
Vikram
Dodd, Kevin Rawlinson and Esther Addley
Fri 29 Nov
2019 20.21 GMTFirst published on Fri 29 Nov 2019 15.14 GMT
A man and a
woman were killed in a terror attack in London carried out by an Islamist
extremist who had been jailed for an al-Qaida inspired bomb plot and was
recently released on licence.
Scotland
Yard are investigating how 28-year-old Usman Khan was able to launch the attack
in London Bridge on Friday, despite being known to the authorities and fitted
with an electronic tag to monitor his movements. He was allowed out a year ago
after serving time for his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange.
In the
early hours of Saturday, officers confirmed earlier reports that Khan began his
attack inside Fishmongers’ Hall, near the north end of the bridge, during a
University of Cambridge-organised conference on rehabilitating offenders.
Officers believe he acted alone.
“The
circumstances, as we currently understand them, are that the attacker attended
an event earlier on Friday afternoon at Fishmongers’ Hall called ‘Learning
Together’. We believe that the attack began inside before he left the building
and proceeded onto London Bridge, where he was detained and subsequently
confronted and shot by armed officers,” said the Met police assistant
commissioner, Neil Basu.
The two
people who died have not yet been named. A man and two women were also injured.
The casualties were taken to the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel, one of
the capital’s four designated major trauma centres. NHS England said on Friday
night that one of the three injured was critical but stable, a second was
stable and a third had suffered less serious injuries.
Prof
Stephen Toope, the university’s vice-chancellor, said he was “devastated” that
an event organised by its Institute of Criminology was targeted in the attack.
“We are in touch with the Metropolitan police, and awaiting further details of
the victims. We mourn the dead and we hope for a speedy recovery for the
injured. Our thoughts are with all their families and friends.”
Khan was
one of nine members of an al-Qaida-inspired terror group convicted of plotting
to bomb the Stock Exchange and build a terrorist training camp in Pakistan that
was disrupted by MI5 and the police. He is also understood to have been a
supporter of al-Muhijaroun, the extremist group which scores of terrorists were
involved with, according to the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate.
He was
originally given an indeterminate sentence, with a minimum term of eight years
in February 2012. This was replaced by a 16-year fixed-term sentence and an
extended period on licence by the court of appeal in 2013.
In his
judgment at the time, Lord Justice Leveson said: “There is no doubt that anyone
convicted of this type of offence could legitimately be considered dangerous.
“There is
an argument for concluding that anyone convicted of such an offence should be
incentivised to demonstrate that he can safely be released; such a decision is
then better left to the Parole Board for consideration proximate in time to the
date when release becomes possible.”
Khan served
the first year of his sentence on remand and spent about seven more behind bars
after sentencing, before being released in December 2018 at about the halfway
point. “Clearly, a key line of enquiry now is to establish how he came to carry
out this attack,” Basu said on Friday night. He had been living in
Staffordshire and police were focusing their searches at an address in the
county.
Police have
said Khan was wearing a fake suicide vest when he was shot. The incident played
out in extraordinary scenes that prompted praise for the bravery of members of
the public and police. In footage captured by bystanders, civilians were seen
wrestling with a person lying on the ground at the northern end of the bridge,
before being pulled to safety by armed police arriving at the scene.
Khan,
dressed in black, then appeared to try to rise, before firearms officers fired
two shots. One man wearing a suit appeared to have removed a large knife from
the suspect before the shots were fired, and was filmed running down the road
away from the scene gesturing at others to get back.There were reports that one
man had taken a five-foot long narwhal tusk from Fishmongers’ Hall to confront
the attacker.
Police had
earlier confirmed Khan died at the scene. In a statement on Friday night, the
Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick said the attack from start to
finish lasted five minutes.
Boris
Johnson, who returned to Downing Street from his constituency, said the
emergency services and members of the public who intervened “represent the very
best of our country”.
The prime
minister said: “This country will never be cowed or divided or intimidated by
this sort of attack and our values, our British values, will prevail.” Downing
Street said the prime minister chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency
response committee, known as Cobra, on Friday evening.
Political
parties said they would be suspending campaigning for the general election on
Saturday. But before the Cobra meeting, Johnson made an apparent bid for
political mileage from the incident, claiming he had “long argued” that it is a
“mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early and
it is very important that we get out of that habit and that we enforce the
appropriate sentences for dangerous criminals, especially for terrorists, that
I think the public will want to see”.
The
incident, the first deadly attack in the UK since 2017, came just three weeks
after the national terrorist threat level was lowered from “severe” to
“substantial”.
Due to
initial reports that the suspect might have had an explosive device, wide
cordons were in place to ensure there was no further danger to the public, Basu
said.
The
incident, which sparked panicked scenes as crowds ran from the bridge and took
shelter in nearby buildings, had echoes of the terrorist attack on the bridge
in June 2017, in which eight people died excluding the attackers.
On that
occasion, terrorists drove a van into crowds crossing the bridge before
attacking others with knives there and in neighbouring pubs and restaurants.
Police shot three Islamist terrorists dead and they were found to be wearing
fake suicide vests.
The
shooting of Khan will now be investigated by the Independent Office for Police
Conduct. By law, it has to examine all police shootings.
Johnson
thanked the emergency services and members of the public, and said in a tweet:
“This is an appalling incident and all my thoughts are with the victims and
their families.” He returned to central London from his constituency to be
personally briefed by Basu and Dick.
Jeremy
Corbyn tweeted: “Shocking reports from London Bridge. My thoughts are with
those caught up in the incident. Thank you to the police and emergency services
who are responding.”
One woman
from New York, who gave her name only as Aditi, said she had hidden in the
attic of a cheese shop in nearby Borough Market when she noticed people running
from the bridge.
“We ran down a side street and noticed people
running into Neal’s Yard Dairy,” she told the Guardian. “We were one of the
last to get in before they locked the door. We were taken to the attic and the
staff said they had been trained for such an incident. We were there for around
30 minutes before the police gave clearance to exit and move further away from
the market. My partner and I are rattled but OK. We’re just glad to be safe.”
Another
woman called Jo from east London said she had been in the market when people
started to panic and run. “I saw two people fall over. The police then told
people to get inside, so we sheltered in Le Pain Quotidien. They locked the doors
and moved people away from the glass.”
More than
20 witnesses were taken to be debriefed at the police-allocated building near
the incident. Some of them looked shaken as they entered the building.
More
arrived in marked and unmarked police vehicles as the afternoon wore on,
including restaurant and transport workers. None were willing to talk to
reporters.
Additional
reporting: Sarah Marsh, Denis Campbell, Haroon Siddique, Rachel Obordo
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