One dead, 10 injured as van strikes worshippers leaving London mosque

One person was killed and 10 others injured on Monday when a van collided with pedestrians near a North London mosque in an incident which is being investigated by counter-terrorism officers, police said.

The crash occurred near the Finsbury Park Mosque as worshippers were leaving after Ramadan prayers.

One person has been arrested after a vehicle hit pedestrians in north London, injuring several people, police said Monday, as Muslim leaders said worshippers were mown down after leaving a mosque.

Police said in a statement there were "a number of casualties", adding that they were called to reports of "a vehicle in collision with pedestrians" at 00:20 am (2320 GMT).

"We have been informed that a van has run over worshippers as they left #FinsburyPark Mosque. Our prayers are with the victims," the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella body, said on Twitter.

The Muslim Council of Britain said the vehicle hit people as they were leaving the Finsbury Park Mosque, one of Britain's largest. The attack comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when people attend prayers at night.

Two worshippers were feared killed, according to the Sun newspaper, but there was no immediate confirmation of this.

"From the window, I started hearing a lot of yelling and screeching, a lot of chaos outside. . Everybody was shouting: 'A van's hit people, a van's hit people'," one woman who lives opposite the scene told the BBC.

"There was this white van stopped outside Finsbury Park mosque that seemed to have hit people who were coming out after prayers had finished. I didn't see the attacker himself, although he seems to have been arrested, I did see the van."

A man leapt out of the van and stabbed at least one person, the Evening Standard newspaper said, citing witnesses. Reuters could not immediately confirm that report.

The incident follows a series of attacks in Britain in recent months blamed on Islamist militants, the latest just over two weeks ago in which three men drove into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed people at nearby restaurants and bars, killing eight..

One witness told CNN it was clear that the attacker at Finsbury Park had deliberately targeted Muslims.

"He tried to kill a lot of people so obviously it's a terrorist attack. He targeted Muslims this time," the witness, identified only as Rayan, said.

Other witnesses told Sky television that the van had hit at least 10 people.

Mosque attack treated as terrorism

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd says police "immediately" treated a fatal incident outside a London mosque as a suspected terrorist attack.

One man outside the Finsbury Park mosque was killed, a van driver was arrested and eight people were taken to hospitals following the early morning incident.

Rudd, who is in charge for government law enforcement, said: "Londoners have been hit with a series of attacks and have been nothing short of heroic." she said Monday.

The chairman of the Finsbury Park Mosque, Mohammed Kozbar, has complained that the "mainstream media" was unwilling to call the attack a terrorist incident for many hours.

48-year-old man arrested

Video filmed in the immediate aftermath of a van striking worshippers near a London mosque showed a Caucasian man being detained by police.

Someone in the crowd yelled to others not to harm the man while he was taken into custody. The video of the crash early Monday morning was accessed by the AP. Police have said the driver was a 48-year-old man who was arrested and taken to a hospital as a precaution. They are investigating the crash as suspected terrorism.

Someone in the crowd is heard yelling, "No one touch him! No one! No one!"

'Deliberately Swerved'

Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the van had deliberately swerved into a group of people who were helping a man who was ill and had fallen to the ground.

"A number of passers-by, or friends, or people who had come by from the mosque, were gathering around him to help take him to his family, take him to his house," Versi told Reuters.

"At that moment in time, basically a van swerved into them deliberately," he said, citing a witness at the scene.

He said the driver had run out of the van but a group of people caught him and held him until police arrived.

A Reuters witness saw at least one person being loaded into an ambulance. Armed police, ambulances and the fire service were in attendance.

The incident comes at a time of political turmoil in Britain, as Prime Minister Theresa May plunges into divorce talks with the European Union weakened by the loss of her parliamentary majority in a June 8 election.

It also follows a series of attacks, including the van-and-knife attack on London Bridge on June 3.

On March 22, a man drove a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London and stabbed a policeman to death before being shot dead. His attack killed five people.

On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.

The Finsbury Park Mosque gained notoriety more than a decade ago for sermons by radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in January 2015 for his conviction on terrorism-related charges.

A new board of trustees and management took over in February 2005, a year after Abu Hamza was arrested by British police, since when attendance has greatly increased among worshippers from various communities, according to the mosque's website.

Source: Khaleej Times