Johnson vows terrorism reforms after London attack
The British government promised sweeping changes to the system for dealing with convicted terrorists released from prison, after police shot dead an Islamist extremist who stabbed two people in a busy south London street on Sunday.
Police said Sudesh Amman, 20, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was shot on the busy Streatham High Road packed with shoppers at about 2 pm (1400 GMT).
Amman was recently given early release from prison where he was serving time for terror offenses.
The incident came just over two months after armed police shot dead a convicted terrorist on early release when he stabbed to death two people attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference near London Bridge in the heart of the British capital.
The government responded to that attack by announcing longer sentences for terrorism offenses, an end to early release and an increase in the counter-terrorism police budget in the coming financial year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said after the latest incident: “Tomorrow (Monday) we will announce further plans for fundamental changes to the system for dealing with those convicted of terrorism offenses.”
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said in a statement outside New Scotland Yard: “The suspect had been recently released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for Islamist-related offenses.”
Amman was jailed in December 2018 for 13 terror offenses and was released from prison in recent weeks under “active police surveillance,” media said.
He had been arrested in north London in May 2018 on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, a month after officers were told of posts he had made on the secure messaging service Telegram.
A witness to the attack described seeing a man “with a machete and silver canisters on his chest” fleeing from plain-clothes police before they opened fire.
The witness said he then sheltered in a library as other passers-by ran into nearby stores.
Footage on social media purporting to capture some of the incident showed armed police officers surrounding a man lying on the ground on Streatham High Road.
They then abruptly moved away, urging onlookers to move back, as other emergency vehicles arrived at the scene.
D’Orsi said one man in his 40s was initially thought to have life-threatening injuries but was now in an improved condition. A woman in her 50s was treated and discharged. Another woman in her 20s suffered minor injuries.
She is believed to have been wounded by flying glass.
Johnson thanked the emergency services for their response. “My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected,” he said.
Police officers guard a cordon, set up on Streatham High Road, at the junction of Prentis Road, in south London on Sunday, after a man is shot dead by police following reports of people being stabbed in the street. British police on Sunday said they had shot a man in south London after at least two people were stabbed in a suspected “terrorist-related” incident. Photo: AFP
