Video shows bystanders at the mosque protecting and subduing the attacker that killed one, injured 10
In the chaotic moments after a van ploughed into pedestrians near Finsbury Park Mosque in North London early Monday morning, bystanders from the mosque subdued the attacker while keeping back angry potential assailants who witnessed the attack.
Abdulrahman Saleh Alamoudi witnessed the attack that killed one and wounded 10 and detained the man.
"Luckily I managed to escape when I did and then the guy came out from his van, I got him one guy who was running through behind him and they came past me, so I managed to get him on the floor," Alamoudi told Buzzfeed News.
"I held him, he was screaming before that he was saying 'I'm going to kill all Muslims'. He was throwing punches all over then we managed to get him on the floor. Then we managed to get him on the floor, and he was saying: 'oh kill me, kill me'. We said: 'we're not going to kill you, why did you do that?' and he wouldn't say anything," continued Alamoudi.
Video shows Alamoudi holding the attacker down as a ring of men surrounds him. Witnesses told Buzzfeed News the mosque's Imam helped in coordinating the protection of the attacker.
Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.
Prime Minister Theresa May chaired an emergency meeting later on Monday and said: "It was an attack that targeted the ordinary and the innocent."
"Today we come together as we have done before to condemn this act and state an act of hatred of this kind will never succeed in dividing us. Like all terrorism, in whatever form, it shares the same goal: to drive us apart. We will not let this happen."