Bangladesh mission yet to confirm London mosque attack victim’s identity
Press minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in London Nadeem Qadir has said they are yet to confirm whether the man killed in the terror attack in front of a London mosque is from Bangladesh or not.
“We’ll update you as soon as we have the details,” he told news agency UNB.
A vehicle struck pedestrians near a mosque in north London early Monday morning, killing one man, said to be a Bangladeshi, and injuring 10 in what police are investigating as a terrorist incident.
The Telegraph online in its report claimed the victim was an ‘elderly Bangladeshi man’ who had just left the Muslim Welfare Mosque on Seven Sisters Road.
Police said the 48-year-old man who was driving the car has been arrested and taken to a hospital as a precaution. He will be given a mental health evaluation, reports AP from London.
The crash occurred at a time when the multiethnic neighbourhood was crowded with Muslims leaving the Finsbury Park mosque after Ramadan prayers.
London police said the driver was detained by the crowd until police arrived.
The crash occurred shortly after midnight when police received reports of a collision between a van and pedestrians. Police said eight of the injured were hospitalised; the other two had minor injuries and were treated at the scene.
Witnesses reported seeing police give emergency heart massage to at least one of the injured.
The Muslim Council tweeted that worshippers had been struck and said its prayers were with the victims.
London police closed the area to normal traffic. A helicopter circled above the area as a large cordon was established to keep motorists and pedestrians away.
Witnesses told Sky News and other British media that the van seemed to have veered and hit people intentionally.
Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organisation, 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 reorganised. It has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
UK rime minister Theresa May described the crash as a ‘terrible incident’. The statement from her office said her thoughts were with the injured, their loved ones and emergency services who responded to the scene.
Britain’s terrorist alert has been set at ‘severe’ meaning an attack is highly likely.