A vehicle struck pedestrians near a mosque in north London early Monday morning, causing several casualties, police said. One person has been arrested.
The London Ambulance Service says the injured are being taken to hospitals. Eyewitnesses reported seeing police give emergency medical treatment to at least one of the injured. The Muslim Council tweeted that worshipers were struck by a van as they were leaving prayers near the Finsbury Park mosque. It said its prayers are with the victims.
“Terror Attack” on Worshippers Leaving #FinsburyPark @MuslimCouncil statement: https://t.co/afA3zNBHq7 pic.twitter.com/BYqxfWQaJu
— MCB (@MuslimCouncil) June 19, 2017
The neighborhood has two mosques, and several hundred worshipers would have been in the area after attending prayers as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Finsbury Park mosque was associated with extremist ideology for several years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States but was shut down and reorganized. It has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the scene on Seven Sisters Road at 12:20 a.m. Monday. Many police cars and ambulances responded to the incident.
Earlier this month, a van veered into pedestrians on London Bridge, setting off vehicle and knife attacks that killed eight people and wounded many others on the bridge and in the nearby Borough Market area. Three Muslim extremists who carried out the attack were killed by police.
