UK police declares stabbing rampage an act of terror

THE stabbing rampage in the southern English town of Reading in which three people were killed and three taken to hospital was an act of terrorism, police said on Sunday (21), terming the attack in a sunny park an "atrocity".

Detectives said a man had run into a park in Reading, about 40 miles (65 km) west of London where locals had been enjoying the evening sun on Saturday, and attacked people with a knife before being tackled by unarmed officers five minutes after they were alerted.

Police said a 25-year-old man who had initially been detained on suspicion of murder had since been re-arrested under the Terrorism Act. He remains in police custody.

"The investigation continues to move at a fast pace," said Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of the regional counter-terrorism unit.

Reports said that the arrested man was a Libyan named Khairi Saadallah.

According to security sources, Saadallah had come across the radar of Britain's domestic security agency MI5 last year over intelligence he had aspirations to travel for extremist purposes, although his plans came to nothing.

He never met the criteria for a full investigation, a source said.

Initially police and the government had said the attack did not appear to be terrorism. But Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer, Neil Basu, said officers had worked through the night and had now declared it to be a terrorist incident.

"This was an atrocity," Basu said. "From our enquiries undertaken so far, officers have found nothing to suggest that there were any other people involved in the attack, and presently, we are not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident."

'APPALLED AND SICKENED'

While the motivation for the attack was unclear, he said there was no intelligence other crowded places were at risk.

The victims have not yet been formally identified but a school in a nearby town said one of its teachers, James Furlong, had been killed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "appalled and sickened" by the attack and said Britain would change the law if needed to prevent any future incidents.

"If there are lessons we need to learn ... we will learn those lessons and we will not hesitate to take action if necessary," he said.

Home Secretary Priti Patel called the attack "senseless" and "terrible" in a Twitter statement.

The Mayor of Reading, Councillor David Stevens, described the incident as "shocking and horrific" as he called on people to join a tribute to the victims by holding a minute's silence at 10am.

Patel visited the scene and laid flowers at Forbury Gardens on Monday morning.

"This is a tragic tragic event, it really is," she told Sky News.

"We have seen three people die so there is extensive work taking place.

"I have been in touch with the chief constable since Saturday evening every single day. I will be going to police headquarters shortly to meet the team who have been working on the investigation itself."

The home secretary added that multiple security agencies were working at tandem "to ensure not only that justice is served but also that we learn the lessons over what happened on the weekend to make sure it doesn't happen again".

London Mayor Sadiq Khan called the rampage "shocking", adding that the UK will "never be cowed down by terrorism".

A witness said the attack began in Reading's Forbury Gardens when a man suddenly shouted unintelligibly and then veered towards a group of about eight to 10 friends and began stabbing them.

"He darted round anti-clockwise the circle, got one, went to another, stabbed the next one, went to another, stabbed the next one," Lawrence Wort, 20, told BBC TV. "He stood up and I saw a massive knife in his hand, probably at least 5 inches (13 cm) minimum."

The attack took place after a Black Lives Matter rally by anti-racism protesters in the park which concluded three hours earlier but Basu said the two incidents were not related.

Current coronavirus restrictions mean venues like pubs are closed, so many people in Britain gather in parks in the evenings to meet friends.

The nature of the attack was reminiscent of a number of recent incidents in Britain that authorities considered to be terrorism.

In February, police shot dead a man, previously jailed for promoting violent Islamist material, who had stabbed two people on a busy street in south London. Last November another man who had been jailed for terrorism offences stabbed two people to death on London Bridge before he too was shot dead by police.

Britain also suffered four attacks in 2017, the most deadly of them a suicide bombing at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester, northern England.