Blood and terror in the heart of London less than two weeks after the British elections. And the nightmare once again has the appearance of the lone wolf, which came into action with a cutlass in his hand and wears a fake explosive jacket to sow fear and death in the crowd of London Bridge , before being blocked by passers-by and frozen by police. The balance is of two people killed and 8 wounded, as confirmed by Scotland Yard. The assailant is a former prisoner released a year ago and under surveillance with links to Islamic terrorist groups .
The specter is back to materialize on a Friday, not just any, in the midst of Black Friday shopping , among residents, tourists and employees of one of the most vibrant areas of the capital of the Kingdom: already hit in 2017, the most bloody recent year on the island on the alert front of terrorism, from the deadly collective stabbing orchestrated on a Saturday night by a trio of young Muslims radicalized in the ghettos of east London. This time, according to initial investigations, it was a single individual who triggered the fury of hatred, throwing a blade at the hands of those who came within range of that bridge.
The alarm was given to the 14 local, the 15 in Italy, with the intervention within 5 minutes of the first patrols of agents, while some brave passers-by had already thrown themselves on the aggressor to stop him. The images of the inevitable amateur videos are then rebounded to tell the horror live: the slashes, the struggle of some people with the man, the arrival of the policemen, the shots, the attacker on the ground, the final bullets almost like blows of grace.
London bridge shooting #London #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/mFRHyhopZA
— London Crime LDN (@CrimeLdn) November 29, 2019
An execution, apparently, justified however by the threatening jacket worn by the killer: something that had all the air of an explosive vest and only after the first tests the investigators have identified as fake. “I can confirm – said Neil Basu, number 2 of Scotland Yard and head of anti-terrorism – that the suspect was hit by gunshots and died on the spot. And he was wearing a fake explosive device.
“Given the nature of the incident we are in a position to declare that it was a terrorist incident,” continued Basu, noting however that the investigation is in its infancy and detectives are currently “open to all tracks” on the motive.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson: rushed back to the capital after breaking his election campaign commitments ahead of the December 12th vote. For Johnson – highly favored in the polls, but struggling in the previous hours with a difficult political day, marked by a surge in the clash with the media in Trump style, by the refusal to participate in some debates on TV and by the controversy over the re-emergence of old articles journalists with their apparent expressions of derision towards the English working class – it was an opportunity to show off leadership: with the strong condemnation of what happened, the calling of the Cobra emergency committee in the evening, the commitment to punish anyone who is “involved”,
