LONDON, UK. (THECOUNT) — Usman Khan, the knife-attack terrorist who was eventually subdued by civilians and shot dead by police on London Bridge on Friday, had once been jailed for plotting a bomb attack.
The Pakistan native, 28, had dreams of starting his own jihadist training camp in Kashmir and was admired by fellow Islamists for his love of Hitler and downplaying the Holocaust.
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Khan had been set free a year after serving just half of a 16-year sentence for plotting with eight others in 2010 to bomb such London landmarks as the stock exchange, American embassy, and Westminster Abbey, reports NYP.
He was still wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet when he went berserk with two long knives after speaking about his own “rehabilitation” during a Cambridge University-sponsored criminal justice conference in London, killing two and injuring three.
British police officially identified Khan as the suspect who stabbed two people to death in London on Friday on London Bridge.
“This individual was known to authorities, having been convicted in 2012 for terrorism offences,” said Britain’s top counter-terrorism police officer Neil Basu in a statement.
“He was released from prison in December 2018 on license and clearly, a key line of enquiry now is to establish how he came to carry out this attack,” Reuters is reporting Friday night.
A number of people have been injured in a stabbing incident at London Bridge, according to Metropolitan Police.
A suspect has been detained, according to local reports.
The London Ambulance Service said a number of crews were at the scene and a major incident had been declared.
“Police were called at 1:58 p.m. to a stabbing at premises near to London Bridge,” the force said.
Images and video on social media show emergency vehicles on the bridge, and onlookers reported hearing what sounded like gunshots at the scene, reports ABCActionNews.
Jinnat Ui Hasan told CNN he was in a meeting in a building near the incident when he heard “more than five” gunshots.
Elsewhere, Steve Beer, 26, told CNN that his place of work which overlooks the bridge was in lockdown.
Police earlier told CNN it was dealing with a “dynamic situation.”
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, is a 21st-century city with history stretching back to Roman times. At its centre stand the imposing Houses of Parliament, the iconic ‘Big Ben’ clock tower and Westminster Abbey, site of British monarch coronations. Across the Thames River, the London Eye observation wheel provides panoramic views of the South Bank cultural complex, and the entire city – wikipedia.