Reports came in early this morning that one man has died and ten injured after a man drove his van through a group of worshippers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park at around 12.30 this morning.
It is believed the driver was deliberately targeting those leaving evening prayer after breaking the Ramadan fast. A 48-year-old man has been arrested.
Theresa May has confirmed that they are treating the incident as a “potential terrorist attack” and will attend an emergency Cobra meeting today.
Eyewitness Abdul Rahman, who helped capture the attacker told the BBC, “When the guy came out from his van he wanted to escape, run away and he was saying ‘I want to kill Muslims. I want to kill Muslims’… I hit him on his stomach… and then me and the other guys… we held him to the ground until he couldn’t move. We stopped him until the police came.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said extra police are being deployed reassure the capital’s population, especially the Muslim community. He said, “We don’t yet know the full details, but this was clearly a deliberate attack on innocent Londoners, many of whom were finishing prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.
“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.”