People near the scene of the attack. Reuters.
Police in London shoot and kill a man who stabbed five people, killing two, in a suspected terror attack near the London Bridge. Reuters. The attacker was subdued by civilians who used whatever improvised weapons they had available to slow the man before police arrived and shot him. The attacker was previously convicted for an Islamic terrorism related offense but was released early under the condition of electronic monitoring. The man was armed with a knife and was also wearing a fake suicide vest. Local and national officials, including Prime Minster Boris Johnson, praised the bravery of the civilians who disarmed the attacker.
WATCH: Moment the London Bridge stabbing suspect is shot dead by police. The MET Police have revealed they're treating it as a 'terror incident' #LondonShooting— RT UK (@RTUKnews) November 29, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/SiuWrsKw6R pic.twitter.com/nNNGvefybF
My Comment:
Fairly major terror attack in London. The suspect was able to kill two people and wound three more before he was disarmed and shot. Given the level of resistance he faced and how fast police response was that can be considered fairly successful for a terror attack. It won't have the impact on the level of any of the mass shootings, bombings or car ramming attacks but given that the pace of terror attacks has slowed so much, it's going to have an effect.
Credit should be given to the brave civilians that fought this attacker and disarmed him. They attacked him with improvised weapons including a fire extinguisher and kicked him until he dropped his knives. Attacking an armed man is brave enough but this one had a fake suicide vest that none of the bystanders knew was fake. They put their lives on the line for their fellow Londoners and I am sure they saved lives. Very brave and praiseworthy.
Generally speaking the way to handle these kinds of attacks, be they mass stabbings or mass shootings, is to respond in force. Doing so results in fewer casualties and, if nothing else, buys time for police to arrive and stop the suspect. These men did exactly the right thing and it's the reason why only two innocent civilians died.
It's not entirely clear why the cops shot the attacker. It's possible the crowd wasn't able to get both of his knives as only one was seen being taken away by one of the civilians. My guess is the other knife was either in his hands, which weren't visible in the video, or within reach. Either way though, the guy was a terrorist so I won't feel bad if the shooting wasn't 100% justified, but all signs point to it being a good shooting.
It's extremely frustrating that this man was out on the streets in the first place. He was arrested and convicted of an Islamic terrorism crime, which in my book means you should go away for most or all of your life. However, they let this guy out on supervised release, despite him being a radical Muslim who had already plotted a terror attack. Espically since he wasn't in prison that long to begin with.
One wonders why he was in the country in the first place? It's possible he was a citizen so they couldn't deport him but if he was a terrorist why not yank his citizenship if he was an immigrant? It's possible he was 2nd generation but even then, it's hard to argue that the UK was improved by keeping this guy here.
My guess is that this was a lone wolf attack not really related to any terror group. It's possible he had some help obtaining knives and his fake suicide belt but even then, it wasn't likely from ISIS or al-Qaeda. He may have had some links to them but I am guessing this was a solo operation.
The good news is that this attacker won't get another chance of launching a terror attack. He failed the 1st time and succeeded the 2nd time but there won't be a third for him. Although there is a case to be made for capturing terror suspects alive due to the intelligence value, I will shed no tears when we take one of these guys down the old fashioned way...
Credit should be given to the brave civilians that fought this attacker and disarmed him. They attacked him with improvised weapons including a fire extinguisher and kicked him until he dropped his knives. Attacking an armed man is brave enough but this one had a fake suicide vest that none of the bystanders knew was fake. They put their lives on the line for their fellow Londoners and I am sure they saved lives. Very brave and praiseworthy.
Generally speaking the way to handle these kinds of attacks, be they mass stabbings or mass shootings, is to respond in force. Doing so results in fewer casualties and, if nothing else, buys time for police to arrive and stop the suspect. These men did exactly the right thing and it's the reason why only two innocent civilians died.
It's not entirely clear why the cops shot the attacker. It's possible the crowd wasn't able to get both of his knives as only one was seen being taken away by one of the civilians. My guess is the other knife was either in his hands, which weren't visible in the video, or within reach. Either way though, the guy was a terrorist so I won't feel bad if the shooting wasn't 100% justified, but all signs point to it being a good shooting.
It's extremely frustrating that this man was out on the streets in the first place. He was arrested and convicted of an Islamic terrorism crime, which in my book means you should go away for most or all of your life. However, they let this guy out on supervised release, despite him being a radical Muslim who had already plotted a terror attack. Espically since he wasn't in prison that long to begin with.
One wonders why he was in the country in the first place? It's possible he was a citizen so they couldn't deport him but if he was a terrorist why not yank his citizenship if he was an immigrant? It's possible he was 2nd generation but even then, it's hard to argue that the UK was improved by keeping this guy here.
My guess is that this was a lone wolf attack not really related to any terror group. It's possible he had some help obtaining knives and his fake suicide belt but even then, it wasn't likely from ISIS or al-Qaeda. He may have had some links to them but I am guessing this was a solo operation.
The good news is that this attacker won't get another chance of launching a terror attack. He failed the 1st time and succeeded the 2nd time but there won't be a third for him. Although there is a case to be made for capturing terror suspects alive due to the intelligence value, I will shed no tears when we take one of these guys down the old fashioned way...
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