London: stabbing being treated as 'terrorist incident'

[shenmue]

BBC story here

From the article:

Police were called to reports of people being attacked at Leytonstone station just after 19:00 GMT. The knifeman reportedly shouted "this is for Syria."

[Ironing Man]

1. ...

its probably a full moon, its brings the nutters out.

its either some deeply pathetic loon who thinks he's in IS but in fact is in care-in-the-community who would otherwise have stabbed people for looking at his imaginary friends wrong, or he actually is the worlds worst terrorist...

my money is on a person with long-standing health problems who no more IS than he's a dragon. he probably also thinks he's a dragon...

[non sociopath skin]

2. I fear that, as in the States ...

A nutjob loner professing to be a Christian is nowadays classified as a nutjob loner.

A nutjob loner professing to be a Muslim is nowadays classified as a terrorist.

The Skin

[Denzil_DC]

3. "You ain't no Muslim, bruv! You're an embarrassment."

That British phlegm.



#youaintnomuslimbruv

If it is terrorism, it sounds like it's stochastic rather than the result of some grand plot.

A bit like the homeless Japanese guy who tried to push a Muslim woman in front of a tube train at Piccadilly Circus shortly after the Paris attack. There was a similar incident a few days ago at Kentish Town, ethnicities of either party not mentioned in initial reports, but attacker named as Devindra Ferguson and victim as Kamlesh Ramji.

Lots of troubled people on the Underground ...

[6chars]

4. the beheading part probably makes people think more of islamic terrorists

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/watch-tube-machete-attacker-tried-to-behead-victim-before-police-arrived-to-taser-him-34262770.html

[Denzil_DC]

5. The headline includes 'tried to behead victim' in quotes and mentions it in this opener:

"A knife-wielding Islamist fanatic may have planned to behead a victim after launching a terrifying attack on Tube travellers, witnesses feared", but no interviews with witnesses are cited saying that.

Horrible attack as it was, once the first victim was on the ground, he slashed his throat, then turned to stabbing him repeatedly and kicking and punching his some more. It takes quite a bit of commitment to actually behead someone. It reports the victim's "injuries are not believed to be life-threatening" and that he's "stable".

I'd guess the police aren't inclined to leave any possibilities out of their investigations, not least for fear of a major arse-kicking competition if this turned out to be part of a planned wave or a series of copycat actions and they didn't publicly entertain the possibility, especially as the guy virtually ensured a higher eventual sentence for himself with the Syria shout.

[6chars]

8. i wonder if the throat slasher will sue for slander

or whether islamic fanatics might file a class action slander suit

[Denzil_DC]

9. I don't know.

And I've no idea what "whether islamic fanatics might file a class action slander suit" is supposed to mean in this context of a lone attacker.

But then I have no axe to grind on this incident other than offering a counter to those apparently trying to promote hysteria about it through exaggeration from whatever motivation.

Initial reports from these incidents are often unreliable, even before the headline writers add their touches:

The police force initially said that two other people suffered minor injuries, but on Sunday said a man was slightly wounded and a woman was threatened by the attacker, but was not injured.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/06/london-subway-stabbings-terror/76877268/

[6chars]

10. the article made an unflattering reference

to Islamic fanatics. Glad the attacker wasn't able to kill anyone.

[Denzil_DC]

11. And?

I dunno, one minute you're promoting a story about an attempted "beheading" that was highly unlikely to have been possible given the tools the attacker had to hand (thanks, MVS), the next you're snarking about libel actions. I'm not sure I get where you're coming from, nor whether I should take you seriously.

[6chars]

12. was joking about libel actions

the article came up on yahoo news, and i didn't realize - as you did - that it was so sloppy. so, in this case do not take me seriously.

[Denzil_DC]

13. On the contrary,

that explanation encourages me to take you seriously.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. That's a rather dubious report

The claim of "cutting as his neck" seems unattributed. The shopkeeper actutally said:

Salim Patel, the owner of a shop in the station, said the attacker punched a victim to the ground before using his knife. “The victim was shouting ‘somebody help, somebody help’ and the tall man was punching him so hard,” he told LBC radio. “When he fell on the floor, he started kicking him and then I called the police. When he started stabbing or cutting something on his body, everybody ran away … It was scary.”

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/06/leytonstone-tube-knife-attack-police-material-terror-motive

The 'machete' which he 'tried to behead' the victim with is descrbied by a named witness, rather than a reporter who didn't see it, like this:

Michael Garcia, 24, a financial analyst from Leytonstone, told the BBC he was walking along an underground passage that runs through the station when he saw people running outside.

“I realised it wasn’t a fight but something more sinister,” he said. He then saw “a guy, an adult, lying on the floor with a guy standing next to him brandishing a knife of about three inches … maybe a hobby knife. It had a thin blade, but looked fairly long. He was screaming ‘Go on then, run’ to everyone else. He was pacing back and forth next to the guy on the floor. He came up to the barriers.”

And "police said the 56-year-old victim’s injuries were not life-threatening", so any 'attempted beheading' doesn't seem to have got very far.

[Denzil_DC]

7. Good catch!

I didn't notice the "machete"/hobby knife detail. Oy.