Attack on London mosque leaves one dead, 8 injured

The British police on Sunday night confirmed that one man was pronounced dead at the scene and at least eight were injured after a vehicle rammed into worshipers coming out from the mosque in the Finsbury Park area of north London.

The eight injured were taken to hospital; two people were treated at the scene for minor injuries, police said in a statement.

The 48-year-old male driver of the van "was found detained by members of the public at the scene and then arrested by police," the police statement said.

"He has been taken to hospital as a precaution, and will be taken into custody once discharged. He will also be subject of a mental health assessment in due course," it added.

“Due to the nature of this incident extra policing resources have been deployed in order to reassure communities, especially those observing Ramadan,” police said in the statement.

'Attack is violent manifestation of Islamophobia'

The statement said witness accounts described the van “intentionally plowed into a group of worshipers who were already tending to someone who had been taken ill."

“During the night, ordinary British citizens were set upon while they were going about their lives, completing their night worship.

My prayers are with the victims and their families. It appears from eye witness accounts that the perpetrator was motivated by Islamophobia,” said Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"Over the past weeks and months, Muslims have endured many incidents of Islamophobia, and this is the most violent manifestation to date," he added.

"Given we are approaching the end of the month of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid with many Muslims going to local mosques, we expect the authorities to increase security outside mosques as a matter of urgency," Khan said.

He further said that Muslims have been very concerned for several years about "the growth in hate crime for many years and transformative action must now be taken to tackle not only this incident but the hugely worrying growth in Islamophobia."

'Potential terrorist attack'

British Prime Minister Theresa May said police were treating the incident “as a potential terrorist attack."

“I will chair an emergency meeting later this morning. All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and the emergency services on the scene," she said.

Earlier reports said a man armed with knife leaped out of the vehicle and stabbed at least one person.

After 12:20 am (2320 GMT), police received a report of collision on Seven Sisters Road, which runs through the Finsbury Park.

"There are a number of casualties being worked on at the scene," London police said. "There has been one person arrested."

Three people were said to have been seriously injured near the mosque.

The incident bore the hallmarks of a terrorist attack in the British capital earlier this month.

Terror on and near the London Bridge left at least eight people dead and wounded almost 50 others on June 3.

Eight minutes after the first emergency call, armed police forces killed ringleader Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22.

The three knife-wielding assailants drove a hired van into pedestrians on the bridge and stabbed others in Borough Market in an attack initially praised and subsequently claimed by the Daesh Takfiri group.

A similar attack on March 22 left five people dead after a man drove a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London and stabbed a policeman to death.

Terrorist alert has been set at "severe" in Britain, meaning an attack is highly likely.

KD