A knife attack at a tube station in East London is being treated as a “terrorist incident”, the Metropolitan police has said.
Police were called to Leytonstone tube station at around 19:00 on Saturday following reports of people being threatened and attacked. One man has suffered serious knife injuries, and two others received minor injuries. None of the victims are thought to be in a life threatening condition.
One man has been arrested after being Tasered by police. The attacker reportedly shouted “this is for Syria.” The Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism team are now handling the case.
The incident comes after the British Parliament passed a bill on Thursday authorising airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. Warplanes launched operations hours after the vote was passed.
Video of the incident aftermath has been posted online. The footage shows the suspect being tasered multiple times, and then being arrested by police officers.
In the video a man can be heard shouting at the perpetrator, “You ain’t no Muslim bruv.You’re an embarrassment”
The statement has inspired a “You ain’t no Muslim Bruv” hashtag on twitter, which at the time of writing has over 29,000 tweets.
Witness told the BBC that the attacker was standing over another man who was lying on the ground, whilst holding a knife around 3in (7.5cm) long.
Michael Garcia, 24, was walking through the station when he saw people running outside. The financial analyst from the local area said, “”I realised it wasn’t a fight but something more sinister.”
He saw “a guy, an adult, lying on the floor with a guy standing next to him brandishing a knife of about three inches… maybe a hobby knife”.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said, “We cannot let these sort of people, terrorist etc, actually dominate our space.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted, “The stabbing in Leytonstone is absolutely shocking. My thoughts are with the victim and his family.”
Britain is currently on a “severe” alert level, the second highest, which means a militant attack is highly likely.
