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2016-08-05 Britain
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London killing not terrorism say police
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Somali-Norwegian teenager went on a knife rampage through London’s Russell Square, a hub for students and tourists, fatally stabbing an American woman from Florida and wounding five other people.
Police said Thursday that it wasn’t terrorism - but in a city on edge after a summer of attacks elsewhere in Europe, both authorities and London residents initially responded as if it were. Police flooded the streets with extra officers and mobilized counterterror detectives before saying the shocking burst of violence appeared to have been "triggered by mental-health issues."
Police officers used a stun gun to subdue the 19-year-old suspect at the scene of the stabbings late Wednesday, among busy streets lined with hotels close to the British Museum.
"Terror in London" ran the headline in the Mail Online, one of several media outlets to speculate that the attack was an act of terrorism. Police initially said terrorism was "one line of inquiry being explored."
But hours later Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said "we have found no evidence of radicalization or anything that would suggest the man in our custody was in any way motivated by terrorism."
He said detectives from the force’s murder and terrorism squads had interviewed the suspect, his family and witnesses and searched properties.
"We believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random," Rowley said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "there is no evidence at all that this man was motivated by ISIS" - another name for ISIS - or similar organizations.
Rowley said the suspect, whose name hasn’t been released, is a Norwegian of Somali ancestry - though police don’t consider that "relevant to the motivation for his actions." Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service said he had left the Scandinavian country in 2002, when he was a small child.
Florida State University said the dead woman was married to psychology professor Richard Wagner, who had been teaching summer classes in London. The university didn’t give her name, but Florida Gov. Rick Scott named her in a tweet as Darlene Horton.
"There are no words to express our heartache over this terrible tragedy," Florida State University president John Thrasher said in a statement. "We are shocked that such senseless violence has touched our own FSU family."
Two Australians, an Israeli, an American and a British citizen were maimed, none with life-threatening injuries.
Police said a British man with a stab wound to his stomach remains hospitalized. The four others were treated and released Thursday.
While knife crime is a regular occurrence in London - there have been two other blade killings this week - the scale and randomness of the rampage rattled nerves. It came just days after authorities warned the British public to be vigilant in light of attacks inspired by the ISIS group elsewhere in Europe.
A couple of months ago, he ran into Bulhan at the college in Morden where they were both studying a BTEC in IT.
‘He was just a regular guy doing the same course as me at college,’ he said. ‘I’d consider him an acquaintance – I’d stop him in the street to say hello and I’d be happy to go out with him socially.
‘We’d talk about the coursework. He came to me and said that he wanted help because he wanted to do well in his course and at the college. He was actively looking to improve, so it’s not like he was doing nothing with his life.
‘He came to ask me for help – he wasn’t a waster.’
| His mental health issues must have appeared very suddenly... |
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Posted by Fred 2016-08-05 00:00||
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