Saturday night in a east London subway station, a knife-wielding man stabbed two people — one seriously — and reportedly claimed that the attack was “for Syria.” British police are now investigating the assault as a “terrorist incident,” according to the BBC. The 29-year-old suspect, who has not yet been identified, eventually succumbed to police after being tased, and was taken into custody. The attack, in London’s Leytonstone Underground station, came just three days after the British Parliament approved military airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria (which then began on Thursday). One of the victims, an as-yet unidentified 56-year-old man, was stabbed in the throat, but the injury was not life-threatening. The other victim did not require medical attention. Semiautomatic and pump-action firearms are banned in the United Kingdom, as is private handgun ownership in mainland Britain.
According to the Guardian, detectives have found evidence which points to the suspect having had a terrorist motive. Said Commander Richard Walton, the leader of Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism unit, “I would urge the public to remain calm, but alert and vigilant. The threat from terrorism remains at severe, which means that a terrorist attack is highly likely.”
In a widely-circulated video showing the purported aftermath of the attack and takedown of the suspect by police, a bystander is overheard shouting at the pinned assailant, “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv.” The Guardian reports that the statement has been trending as a hashtag on Twitter since the attack, used by “social media users who say it is the perfect riposte to attempts to spread violence and terror in London — disowning and sidelining the attacker.”
