The suspect who reportedly plowed his van into a crowd of people on late Sunday evening at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, apparently screamed and shouted that he intended to take the lives of “all Muslims.”
New York Post reports that authorities are treating the attack as terrorism, although they are “keeping an open mind.” Witnesses indicate that the act seemed to be intentional as the driver rammed a white rental van through a crowd of people leaving the mosque after Ramadan evening prayer.
Retweeted The Guardian (@guardian):
London mosque attack: driver shouted 'I want to kill all Muslims,' witness… https://t.co/cXkAxIGZGc
— safia simon (@safia_simon) June 19, 2017
“This big van just came and went all over us,” Saleh Alamoudi said, who watched the incident unfold first-hand. “I think at least eight or 10 people were injured. Luckily I managed to escape, and then the guy came out of his van.”
The suspect attempted to flee on foot after the ordeal, but two people grabbed him and held him down until police arrived.
“He was screaming before that,” Alamoudi said. “He was saying, ‘I’m going to kill all Muslims, I’m going to kill all Muslims.’
He was throwing punches all over. Then when we managed to get him on the floor, he was saying, ‘Kill me, kill me.’”
Video footage posted by The Guardian briefly shows the suspect, a 48-year-old white male, with the back of his shirt torn off, being cuffed and led into a police van. As the suspect was being placed into the van, he raised his cuffed hands and waved at someone filming him.
One person was killed and a total of 10 people were injured during the attack.
[Feature Photo: AP/Alastair Grant]
