Tag Archives: Terrorist Attack

Britain’s May condemns ‘sickening’ attack as van rams Muslim worshipers

Police officers attend to the scene after a vehicle collided with pedestrians near a mosque in the Finsbury Park neighborhood of North London, Britain June 19, 2017.

By Alistair Smout and Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) – A van plowed into worshippers near a London mosque on Monday, injuring 10 people in what Prime Minister Theresa May said was a sickening, terrorist attack on Muslims.

Shortly after midnight, the vehicle swerved into a group of people leaving prayers at the Muslim Welfare House and the nearby Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, one of the biggest in the country.

The driver, a 48-year-old white man, was grabbed at the scene by locals and pinned down until police arrived.

“This morning, our country woke to news of another terrorist attack on the streets of our capital city: the second this month and every bit as sickening as those which have come before,” May told reporters outside her Downing Street office.

“This was an attack on Muslims near their place of worship,” said May who later visited the mosque.

The attack is the fourth since March in Britain and the third to involve a vehicle deliberately driven at pedestrians.

It also comes at a tumultuous time for the government with Britain starting complex divorce talks with the European Union and May negotiating with a small Northern Irish party to stay in power after losing her parliamentary majority following a snap election.

DRIVER DETAINED

The mosques’ worshipers, who come mainly from North and West Africa, had just left special prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Abdulrahman Aidroos said he and his friends had been tending an old man who had suffered a heart attack when the van was driven at them.

“He was saying ‘I wanna kill more people, I wanna kill more Muslims’,” Aidroos told BBC TV. He said he had helped tackle and detain the driver while other witnesses said the imam had stepped in to ensure the man was not harmed.

“Their restraint in the circumstances was commendable,” said Neil Basu, senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing. The man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and police said they believed he had acted alone.

“I would like to … thank our imam, Mohammed Mahmoud, whose bravery and courage helped calm the immediate situation after the incident and prevented further injuries and potential loss of life,” said Toufik Kacimi, the chief executive of the Muslim Welfare House.

Police said 10 people were injured, with eight taken to hospital, two in a very serious condition.

The man who was being given first aid at the scene before the attack had died but it was not clear whether his death was directly linked.

Usain Ali, 28, said he heard a bang and ran for his life.

“When I looked back, I thought it was a car accident, but people were shouting, screaming and I realized this was a man choosing to terrorize people who are praying,” he told Reuters. “He chose exactly the time that people pray, and the mosque is too small and full, so some pray outside.”

Men pray after a vehicle collided with pedestrians near a mosque in the Finsbury Park neighborhood of North London, Britain June 19, 2017.

Men pray after a vehicle collided with pedestrians near a mosque in the Finsbury Park neighborhood of North London, Britain June 19, 2017.

POLITICAL TURMOIL

Just over two weeks ago three Islamist militants drove into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed people at nearby restaurants and bars, killing eight..

The latest incident also follows a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester, northern England, in May which killed 22, while in March, 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.

May, weakened after losing her parliamentary majority in a June 8 election she had called to strengthen her hand in Brexit talks, has faced criticism for her record on security after the previous series of attacks blamed on Islamist militants.

She has also been criticized for her response to a fire in a London tower block last Wednesday which killed at least 79 people.

“Today’s attack falls at a difficult time in the life of this city, following on from the attack on London Bridge two weeks ago – and of course the unimaginable tragedy of Grenfell Tower last week,” May said.

She promised action to stamp out all forms of hatred, saying there had been far too much tolerance of extremism in Britain over many years.

Police had said hate crimes rose after the London Bridge attack and more officers would be deployed to provide reassurance to mosques.

The Muslim Council of Britain said Monday’s attack was the most violent manifestation of Islamophobia in Britain in recent months and called for extra security at places of worship.

Finsbury Park Mosque said it was a “callous terrorist attack” and noted it had occurred almost exactly a year after a man obsessed with Nazis and extreme right-wing ideology murdered lawmaker Jo Cox, a former humanitarian aid worker.

The mosque itself 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 after being convicted of terrorism-related charges.

However, 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.

 

(Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho, William James, Dylan Martinez and Elisabeth O’Leary; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Nick Tattersall and Michael Holden; Editing Jeremy Gaunt)

No evidence of Islamic State link to Jerusalem attack: Israeli police

Israeli policemen secure the scene of the shooting and stabbing attack outside Damascus gate in Jerusalem's old city June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli authorities said on Saturday they had found no evidence of Islamic State involvement in attacks by three Palestinians that killed an Israeli policewoman, despite the group’s claim of responsibility.

Palestinian militant factions also denied Islamic State was involved in the attacks in Jerusalem on Friday, in which a second Israeli police officer was wounded.

Islamic State’s claim of responsibility was reported by the group’s Amaq news agency on Friday.

Police spokeswoman Luba Simri said the Israeli military had so far found no connection between the three assailants and any armed group.

“It was a local cell. At this stage no indication has been found it was directed by terrorist organizations nor has any connection to any organization been found,” Simri said.

The SITE intelligence monitoring group said it was the first time Islamic State had claimed responsibility for an attack inside Israeli-controlled territory.

However, a senior official from Hamas, the Islamic group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the three attackers, who were all shot dead at the scene, were their own members.

“The three hero martyrs who executed the Jerusalem operation have no connection to Daesh (Islamic State), they are affiliated with the PFLP and Hamas,” Hamas’ Izzat El-Reshiq wrote on Twitter.

In a separate statement, the PFLP identified two of the three attackers as its members. “The media office of the PFLP armed wing mourns two of its hero comrades, two freed prisoners,” it said.

Israeli police said on Friday all the assailants were from the occupied West Bank. Two of them, both from the area of Ramallah, were aged between 18 and 19 and the third was a 30-year-old from Hebron, Simri said.

The assaults took place simultaneously in two areas near the Damascus gate of Jerusalem’s walled old city.

Two Palestinians were shot dead after opening fire at and trying to stab a group of Israeli police officers, police said. In the second incident, a Palestinian fatally stabbed a border policewoman before being shot dead by police.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks began in October 2015 but has since slowed. Thirty-eight Israelis, two American tourists and a British student have been killed in stabbings, shootings and car-rammings, many of which took place in the vicinity of the Old City’s Damascus gate.

At least 252 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began. Israel says at least 170 of those killed were carrying out attacks. Others died during clashes and protests.

Israel blames the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that and says assailants have acted out of desperation over Israeli occupation of land sought by Palestinians for a state.

U.S.-brokered peace talks between the sides broke down in 2014. Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait and Adrian Croft)

Three Palestinians killed after attacking Israeli officers

Israeli policemen secure the scene of the shooting and stabbing attack outside Damascus gate in Jerusalem's old city June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians who carried out shooting and stabbing attacks that critically injured an Israeli border policewoman in Jerusalem on Friday, police said.

The attacks occurred simultaneously in two areas near the Damascus gate of Jerusalem’s walled old city.

At one scene, two Palestinians were shot and killed after opening fire at and trying to stab a group of Israeli police officers, police said. At the other, a Palestinian stabbed a border policewoman, critically wounding her, before being shot dead by police.

A second Israeli officer was also injured in the attacks.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks began in October 2015 but has since slowed. Israel blames the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land sought by Palestinians in peace talks that have been stalled since 2014.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

London Bridge attackers had tried to hire 8.3 ton truck: police

People look at floral tributes near London Bridge, London, Britain, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) – The three Islamists who killed eight people after driving a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then attacking nearby revelers had initially tried to hire a 7.5 tonne (8.3 ton) truck, the head of the UK capital’s counter-terrorism unit said on Friday.

Commander Dean Haydon also revealed that the men had a stockpile of petrol bombs in the back of their van and carried out their deadly attack with pink ceramic knives. Officers also discovered a Koran in their safe house, opened at a page on martyrdom.

The discoveries, especially of the plan to hire a truck, suggested more could have been killed.

“Getting hold of a 7.5 tonne lorry – the effects could have been even worse,” Haydon told reporters.

Although Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the attack, Haydon said there was no evidence the attackers – Pakistani-born Briton Khuram Butt, Italian Youssef Zaghba and Rachid Redouane who had links to Libya, Morocco and Ireland – were directed by anyone else, either in Britain or abroad.

“We’re not looking for a wider network,” said Haydon, head of London’s Counter Terrorism Command, adding that officers were still trying to piece together how the three men had met. “How did they know each other? They are a diverse bunch,” he said.

Haydon provided unusually extensive details of last Saturday’s attack, the deadliest in London since suicide bombers killed 52 people on the city’s transport network in 2005.

RINGLEADER

On Saturday morning, Butt, who Haydon said was believed to be the ringleader, tried to rent a 7.5 tonne truck but did not provided payment details.

It was not clear why he could not pay, or if he lacked the necessary license to drive such a vehicle. But his attempt echoed last July’s attack in Nice, France, when a 19-tonne truck was driven into crowds, killing 86 people.

Shortly before 1700 GMT, Butt received a text message confirming his hire of a Renault van instead.

At about 1730 GMT, the men drove to pick up the van before heading to Zaghba’s home in east London. At 1838 GMT they left and two hours later the van reached London Bridge which they drove along twice before targeting pedestrians on the sidewalk on their third run.

Three people on the bridge were struck and killed by the van, believed to have been driven by Butt, before the men abandoned the vehicle and began to attack people in bars and restaurants in the nearby bustling Borough Market area.

The men were armed with identical 12-inch (30cm) pink ceramic knives, strapped to their wrists with leather bound around the handle. They were also wearing fake suicide belts – plastic water bottles wrapped in duct tape.

Eight minutes after police were alerted, armed officers arrived at the scene and fired 46 rounds, killing all three men. Their victims were three French nationals, two Australians, a Canadian, a Spaniard and a Briton.

In the attackers’ van detectives found 13 wine bottles, filled with lighter fuel with rags wrapped round them to make Molotov cocktail petrol bombs. There were also two blow torches which Haydon thought could have been used to light the homemade bombs as part of a possible secondary attack.

“They were still fairly close to the van. There is a possibility that they could have come back,” Haydon said.

There were also office chairs, a suitcase and two bags of gravel which Haydon said might have been to add weight or to act as a cover story for their activities to friends and family.

He said Redouane’s home, an apartment in Barking, east London, was the men’s safe house where they put their plot together and prepared the attack.

There they found an English-language copy of the Koran which had been left open on a page describing martyrdom, along with other items linked to their attack.

Haydon said since last Saturday they had taken 262 statements from people from 19 different countries and numerous international inquiries were ongoing relating to the attackers and the victims.

CRITICISM

British police and security services were criticized after it emerged that they had known about Butt, who featured in a TV documentary entitled “Jihadis Next Door”, in which he joined a group unfurling an Islamic State (IS) flag in a park.

Haydon acknowledged that Butt had links to al Muhajiroun, a banned group headed by cleric Anjem Choudary. He was jailed last year for encouraging support of IS, which has been linked to numerous militant plots in Britain and abroad.

Butt was also arrested for fraud last October but was about to be told by prosecutors he would face no further action.

“We will be looking at intelligence and our processes, and asking ourselves the question: ‘Could we have prevented such an attack?’,” Haydon said. “There is nothing that I’m seeing at the moment that suggested that we got that wrong.”

Police have installed security barriers running alongside the sidewalks at eight bridges across the River Thames, and Haydon said similar protection was being considered at other locations.

Police were also reviewing security at “iconic sites”, crowded places and major events, and refreshing advice to theaters, bars, shopping centers and sports venues.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

Iran attacks expose security gaps, fuel regional tension

Members of Iranian forces take cover during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) – When Islamic State called on members of Iran’s Sunni Muslim minority in March to wage a religious war on their Shi’ite rulers, few people took the threat seriously. And yet within three months, militants have breached security at the very heart of the nation, killing at least 17 people.

This week’s attacks at parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini have exposed shortcomings among the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which was supposed to be protecting these potent symbols of Iran’s revolution.

They have also undermined Tehran’s belief that by backing offensives against Islamic State across the Middle East, it can keep the militant Sunni group away from Iran.

Undaunted, officials say Iran will step up the strategy, which includes sending fighters to battle Islamic State in Syria and Iraq alongside allied Shi’ite militia groups.

And with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the IRGC blaming Saudi Arabia for the attacks, tensions are only likely to deepen between the two arch rivals competing for influence in an already chaotic region. Riyadh denies the charges, describing Tehran instead as “the number one state sponsor of terrorism”.

Wednesday’s killings in Tehran by Iranian members of Islamic State drew a shocked response similar to that in Western countries when they too have been attacked by locally-born jihadists. Now Iranians are worrying about how many others are out there, planning similar assaults.

One senior Iranian official told Reuters that Islamic State had established a network of support in the country, and suggested that members’ motivation was as much political and economic as to do with Sunni radicals’ belief that Shi’ites are infidels.

“Sunni extremism is spreading in Iran like many other countries. And not all of these young people who join extremist groups are necessarily religious people,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “But the establishment is well aware of the problem and is trying to tackle it.”

Most Iranian Sunnis, who form up to 10 percent of the population, reject Islamic State’s ideology. But some young Sunnis seem to regard policies of Shi’ite-led Iran as oppressive at home or aggressive abroad, such as in Iraq and Syria, pushing more of them into the arms of jihadist groups.

Iran has been trying to stem the spread of radicalism into Sunni majority regions, which are usually less economically developed. Authorities said 1,500 young Iranians were prevented from joining Islamic State in 2016.

Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents.

Two Sunni groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been fighting the IRGC for over a decade. This has mostly been in remote areas but some say it was almost inevitable that violence would eventually spread to Tehran, as it did this week.

“It’s not the attacks that are surprising. It’s that Iran has been able to avoid one for so long. The attacks were a wake-up call for Iran’s security apparatus,” said senior Iran analyst Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group. “But so too will they probably serve as one for jihadists, who will be encouraged to exploit Iran’s vulnerabilities.”

“STRATEGIC FOLLY”

Since its creation shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the IRGC has functioned as Iran’s most powerful internal and external security force, with a sophisticated intelligence and surveillance network.

The IRGC has vowed revenge on Islamic State – known by its opponents under the Arab acronym of Daesh – but a top security official said this won’t be easy.

“The attacks showed the vulnerability of our security system, at the borders and within Iran,” the official said, asking not to be named. However, he added: “Many planned attacks by Daesh have been foiled by our security forces in the past years. Many terrorist cells were dismantled. Our Guards have been vigilant.”

Syrian rebels and Iraqi forces are closing in on Islamic State in those countries, and the official said the group appeared to have tried to strike back in Tehran.

“The attacks are the result of Daesh being weakened in the region. They blame Iran for that … But Iran will not abandon its fight against terrorism,” he added.

Open discussion of security vulnerabilities is taboo in Iran. However, Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized the idea that Syria and Iraq could form an effective first line of defense for Iran.

“Iranian officials have long justified their country’s active military presence in Iraq and Syria as a way to keep the homeland safe,” he said. “Wednesday’s attacks expose the folly of that strategy.”

SPIRALING TENSIONS

A senior official, who also asked not to be named, said the attacks would push Iran toward “a harsher regional policy”.

Sanam Vakil, associate fellow with Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, dismissed any expectation that Tehran might try to ease spiraling tensions with Riyadh. “If we are expecting to see any change in Iran’s regional policy or a retreat in any way – that is not going to happen,” she said.

Newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani has said the attacks will make Iran more united. Analysts, however, believe they will exacerbate domestic tensions between Rouhani, a pragmatist, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the IRGC.

They have repeatedly criticized Rouhani’s attempts to improve relations with the outside world.

Rouhani has generally lost out to the hardliners, who through the IRGC’s Al Quds force – expeditionary units which are fighting in Iraq and Syria as well as organizing Shi’ite allies – continue to call the shots. In the view of the hardliners’ critics, they are helping to drive alienated Sunnis toward militant groups.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Samia Nakhoul and David Stamp)

UK arrests three as footage of London Bridge attack appears online

Forensic officers walk along the road at the scene of the attack on London Bridge and Borough Market, London, Britain. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

LONDON (Reuters) – British police investigating the deadly attacks on London Bridge on Saturday said they had arrested three more suspects, as footage of the moment officers shot the assailants dead appeared online.

Counter terrorism officers, backed up by armed colleagues, arrested two men on the street in Ilford, east London, late on Wednesday, while a third was arrested at a house nearby, police said in a statement.

Two of the men, aged 27 and 29, were held on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism while the third was detained over suspected drugs offences.

Eight people were killed and 50 injured after three Islamist militants drove into pedestrians on London Bridge late on Saturday, then attacked revelers in nearby bars and restaurants with knives.

Closed circuit TV footage, which appeared online and in British media, showed the attackers – Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba – cornering a victim and starting to stab him before police are seen arriving and opening fire.

Police have previously said eight officers who rushed to scene fired about 50 rounds, killing the three attackers.

The Times newspaper also said it had obtained footage of the men laughing and joking five days before the attack as they met outside the Ummah Fitness Center, a gym in east London where Butt trained.

Earlier this week the gym put a note on its door which read: “While Mr Butt did occasionally train here at UFC gym we do not know him well nor did we see anything of concern.”

Police and the security agencies are facing questions about whether they missed chances to thwart the attack.

Butt had appeared in a television documentary called “The Jihadis Next Door”, as one of a group of men who unfurled an Islamic State flag in a park and who had connections with known radical preachers.

Zaghba, an Italian-Moroccan national, was identified as a possible militant threat after he was stopped at Bologna airport in 2016 as tried to reach Syria. He was not charged, but local police monitored him carefully and said they had tipped off Britain when he subsequently moved to London.

The authorities have said Butt was known to police and the domestic security service MI5 but there was no intelligence that an attack was being planned. They said they were unaware of the other two men.

Police have made more than a dozen arrests in the wake of the London Bridge attacks, but most have now been released without charge.

In a separate investigation not linked to the London Bridge attacks, officers backed up by armed police arrested three men in east London on Thursday on suspicion of preparing for acts of terrorism.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Boko Haram attack on Nigerian city of Maiduguri kills 14 people, say police

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – An attack by Boko Haram jihadists on the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri killed 14 people and wounded 24 others, police said on Thursday, the first official toll.

Maiduguri is the epicenter of the eight-year fight against Boko Haram which has been trying to set up an Islamic State in the northeast, and has been largely free of violence for the past two years.

The fighters attacked the city’s suburbs on Wednesday night with anti-aircraft guns and several suicide bombers, said Damian Chukwu, police commissioner of Borno State, of which Maiduguri is the capital.

“A total of 13 people were killed in the multiple explosions with 24 persons injured while one person died in the attack (shooting),” he told reporters.

Several buildings were set on fire but the military repulsed the fighters after an hour, he said.

Aid workers and Reuters witnesses reported explosions and heavy gunfire for at least 45 minutes in the southeastern and southwestern outskirts of the city. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, according to Reuters witnesses.

The raid comes six months after President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram had “technically” been defeated by a military campaign that had pushed many jihadists deep into the remote Sambisa forest, near the border with Cameroon.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram’s campaign to establish a caliphate in the Lake Chad

basin. A further 2.7 million have been displaced, creating one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies.

Despite the military’s success in liberating cities and towns, much of Borno remains off-limits, hampering efforts to deliver food aid to nearly 1.5 million people believed to be on the brink of famine.

(Reporting by Ola Lanre; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Iran attackers fought for Islamic State in Syria, Iraq: ministry

Members of Iranian forces take position during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017. Omid Vahabzadeh/TIMA

ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran said on Thursday that gunmen and bombers who attacked Tehran were Iranian members of Islamic State who had fought in the militants’ strongholds in Syria and Iraq – deepening the regional ramifications of the assaults.

The attackers raided Iran’s parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum on Wednesday morning, in a rare strike at the heart of the Islamic Republic. Authorities said the death count had risen to 17 and scores were wounded.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards have also said regional rival Saudi Arabia was involved, further fuelling tensions between Sunni Muslim power Riyadh and Shi’ite power Tehran as they vie for influence in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia dismissed the accusation.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said on Thursday five of the attackers who died in the assault had been identified as Iranians who had joined the hardline Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State on its main battlegrounds in Iraq and Syria.

“They earlier left Iran and were involved in the crimes of the terrorist group in Raqqa and Mosul,” the ministry said, referring to Islamic State’s effective capital in Syria and a city it captured in Iraq.

“Last year, they returned to Iran … to carry out terrorist attacks in the holy cities of Iran,” the ministry added in a statement on state news agency IRNA.

The attacks were the first claimed by Islamic State inside the tightly controlled country, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants in neighboring Iraq and beyond that Syria.

Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran’s majority Shi’ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said earlier on Thursday it had arrested more suspects linked to the attacks, on top of six Iranians, including one woman, detained on Wednesday.

Militant attacks are rare in Tehran and other major cities although two Sunni militant groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been waging a deadly insurgency, mostly in remote areas, for almost a decade.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Man shot after attacking police outside Paris’ Notre Dame

French police stand at the scene of a shooting incident near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

PARIS (Reuters) – French police shot and wounded a man who attacked officers with a hammer outside the Notre Dame cathedral on Tuesday and the Paris prosecutor’s office swiftly launched a counter-terrorism investigation.

Armed police cordoned off the site and the cathedral in central Paris that is visited by millions of tourists every year was locked down during the incident.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. It comes just three days after Islamist militants killed seven people in London in a knife and van attack.

“Situation under control, one policeman injured, the assailant was neutralized and taken to hospital,” Paris police said on Twitter.

Two police sources said the officers shot the assailant in the thorax after he had threatened them with a hammer and refused to stop. One policeman was hurt, according to one source.

Karine Dalle, a spokeswoman for the Paris diocese, told BFM TV 900 people were still inside the cathedral as police secured the area.

One holidaymaker inside Notre Dame wrote on Twitter: “Not the holiday experience wanted. Trapped in Notre Dame Cathedral after police shoot a man. We are with our 2 terrified children.”

France is under a state of emergency after a wave of militant attacks since early 2015 that have killed more than 230 people across the country.

It has soldiers patrolling its streets alongside police to protect tourist sites, government buildings and events.

Three women were arrested in September after police found a car laden with gas cylinders abandoned near Notre Dame cathedral in what the interior ministry at the time said was a likely planned imminent attack.

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva and Emmanuel Jarry; writing by John Irish; Editing by Richard Lough)

British police name third London Bridge attacker as Youssef Zaghba

People near the scene of the recent attack observe a minute's silence in tribute to the victims of the attack at London Bridge and Borough Market, in central London, Britain June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

By Estelle Shirbon and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – British police named the third of the jihadis who killed seven people in a knife and van attack in London as Youssef Zaghba, 22, believed to be an Italian national of Moroccan descent.

The fallout from the attack eclipsed all other subjects in the political campaign ahead of Thursday’s general election, with both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party battling to defend their records on security.

Police said Zaghba had not been a subject of interest for them or for the MI5 domestic intelligence agency.

Earlier, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera had reported that Zaghba had been stopped at an Italian airport because authorities believed he was on his way to Syria, and that Italian officials had warned British counterparts about him.

In Britain’s third Islamist attack in as many months, the three men rammed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge on Saturday evening before running into the bustling Borough Market area, where they slit throats and stabbed people.

Police had named the other two attackers as Khuram Butt, 27, a British national born in Pakistan, and Rachid Redouane, 30, who had claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. Butt was previously known to security agencies and had appeared in a British TV documentary called “The Jihadis Next Door”.

As these details have emerged, Prime Minister Theresa May has faced questions about her record overseeing cuts to police numbers when she was interior minister.

The latest opinion poll on voting intentions, by Survation for ITV, had the Conservatives’ lead over Labour narrowing to just one point from six points in the same poll a week earlier.

However, the consensus among pollsters remains that May’s party, who have been in government since 2010, will win a majority.

“ATTACK ON THE FREE WORLD”

Saturday’s rampage followed a suicide bombing that killed 22 adults and children at a pop concert in Manchester two weeks ago, and an attack in March when five people died after a car was driven into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge.

All three of the London Bridge attackers were shot dead at the scene by officers within eight minutes of police receiving the first emergency call.

The first among the dead to be named were Christine Archibald, a Canadian and Britons James McMullan and Kirsty Boden. The 48 injured included people from Britain, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, in what May called “an attack on the free world”.

“As she ran towards danger, in an effort to help people on the bridge, Kirsty sadly lost her life,” said Boden’s family in a statement on Tuesday. She was a nurse.

A nationwide minute of silence was held at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) to honour all the victims.

Before the recent attacks, Brexit and domestic issues such as the state of the health service and the cost of care for the elderly had dominated the election campaign.

When May called the election in April, her Conservatives led in opinion polls by 20 points or more.

But an announcement – made before the Manchester and London Bridge attacks – that they planned to make some of the elderly pay more for their care saw that lead start to shrink, to between one and 12 points now.

The polls have continued to narrow since the attacks took place.

Security has become the number one issue and both main parties issued statements on Tuesday portraying their own positions on policing and intelligence as the most robust.

(Additional reporting by Antonella Cinelli and Gavin Jones in Rome, Alistair Smout and William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)