The London Assassin: Who Was He? And why was he being monitored?

On Sunday, a man stabbed two people in the street. Now it turned out that the assassin was no stranger to the authorities.

• A 20-year-old attacked two people with a stab in London on Sunday.
• The assassin is apparently a convicted Islamist .
• You can read all the latest news about the attack in London in our ticker.

London - He is said to be an Islamist, has been in prison for several years and apparently struck again on Sunday: A 20-year-old man stabbed two people in the street in London. A third person was also injured in the incident. A few minutes later, the police shoot him .

However, the police 's rapid intervention was no accident, as the man was shadowed by anti-terrorist investigators when the attack occurred. He is said to be an Islamist convicted of terrorist offenses who had recently been released from prison. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in 2018 for collecting material for an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and spreading propaganda.

Terror in London: the assassin wore a dummy explosive belt

According to the British newspaper Independent , he previously even asked his girlfriend to behead her parents because they were unbelievers. Nevertheless, he was released from prison early in January . According to eyewitness reports, the perpetrator also wore an explosive belt. The police confirmed this, but explained that it was a dummy .

"I was just crossing the street when I saw a man with a machete and silver containers on his chest ," said a teenager from the PA news agency. The eyewitness himself had fled to a library. He also said that the man was followed by a person in civilian clothes and was shot several times. According to the dpa, the man was observed as part of a " preventive counter-terrorism operation ".

Terror in London: The perpetrator injured three people in the attack - one was temporarily in mortal danger

After the attack, which took place in a busy shopping street in south London , one of the attacked victims was in mortal danger , later the condition of the man was stable. A woman would also be taken to the hospital with stab wounds, but these should not be life-threatening. Another woman received minor injuries from glass that had been broken by police shots.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson * announced "fundamental changes" in dealing with convicted terrorists in response to the incident and thanked the police and emergency services on Twitter via Sunday. "My thoughts are with the injured and all concerned," he said.

Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.

Another assassination attempt did not occur in London until the end of November 2019:

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen Digital editors network.

List of rubric lists: © AFP / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS