In a brutal daylight attack
which raised fears that terrorism had returned to London, two men with butcher
knives hacked another man to death near a military barracks Wednesday before
police wounded them in a shootout.
In a shocking video broadcast on British TV, one man gestured with
bloodied hands, waving a butcher knife in the air and shouting political
statements against the British government as pedestrians milled about a body
lying motionless on the street. Bloodstains coated the street.
British officials said the attack appeared to be an act of terrorism,
possibly motivated by radical Islam.
The two suspects remained hospitalized on Wednesday night but their
identities and that of their victim were not known. One of them was reported to
be in serious condition.
The afternoon attack occurred in the southeast London neighborhood of
Woolwich, just a few blocks from the Royal Artillery Barracks.
In Paris, French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a press
conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, said the slain man was a
British soldier. Cameron didn't immediately confirm that fact but the Britain's
Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating if a U.K. soldier was
involved.
Cameron said there were "strong indications" it was a
terrorist incident.
"We have suffered these attacks before, we have always beaten them
back," Cameron said. "We will not be cowed, we will never
buckle."
One British broadcaster ran video footage of what appeared to be one of
the attackers, his hands covered in blood, making political statements about
"an eye for an eye" to an unknown cameraperson as a body lay behind
him on the ground.
There was no immediate way for the Associated Press to verify who the
cameraman was.
The footage — obtained by ITV news — showed a man in a dark jacket and
knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife in what
appear to be bloodied hands. With a British accent, he apologized in English
for the women passers-by who "have had to witness this" attack,
saying that "in our land our women have to see the same."
He gave no indication what that land was.
"We must fight them as they fight us," the man told the
camera as people milled around behind him. The camera then panned away to show
a body behind the man.
The Associated Press examined the footage to verify its authenticity.
The AP cross-referenced images from the scene, aerial shots, the location of a
car behind the alleged attacker and appearance of a body and car in the background
of the image.
The British Cabinet's emergency committee immediately called a meeting
and the prime minister's office said security was stepped up at barracks across
London. Cameron cut short his Paris trip to return to London and his office
said he would chair another emergency committee meeting Thursday.
The barracks — which house a number of the King's Troop Royal Horse
Artillery and independent companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards —
were the site of shooting events during the 2012 London Olympics.
Fred Oyat, a 44-year-old who lives in a high-rise near where the attack
occurred, said he heard four gun shots and then went straight to the window.
"I saw one man lying there bleeding, another lying on the pavement
being disarmed. A policeman was pointing a gun at him. A third man was lying
further up the street ... he was bleeding profusely," Oyat said.
"There were four knives on the ground — big kitchen knives. The knives
were very bloody."
David Dixon, head teacher of a nearby primary school, saw a body lying
in the road outside and said police told him there was a serious incident. He
told the BBC he then made sure students were inside and put the school into a
lockdown mode. He said he then heard shots fired.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is called in when
officers are involved in shootings, confirmed that it is investigating the
attack.
SCRIPTURES
EZEKIEL 35: 1Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2Son
of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am
against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make
thee most desolate.
4I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt
know that I am the LORD.
5Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of
the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity,
in the time that their iniquity had an end: 6Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord
GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou
hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. 7Thus will I make mount
Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that
returneth. 8And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and
in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the
sword. 9I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not
return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
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