British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to toughen terrorism rules after three people were wounded in a stabbing incident in Streatham on Sunday. Police shot and killed the suspect at the scene.
“I think the idea of automatic early release for people who obviously continue to pose a threat to the public has come to the end of its useful life,” Johnson said in a speech, noting he was “at the end of his patience” with terrorist convicts who go rampant the moment they are released from their prison terms, the Associated Press reported.
“We do think it’s time to take action to ensure that people—irrespective of the law that we’re bringing in—people in the current stream do not qualify automatically for early release,” Johnson said.
Johnson had made similar statements last November about an identical situation in London. A prisoner convicted of terrorism-related activities was released from prison halfway through his sentence and caused a similar stabbing incident while wearing a fake suicide vest.
“We may need to accept there are certain people who are so dangerous they must be kept in prison indefinitely,” he told BBC radio, Reuters reported.
“We have an issue about if you have about 200 or so inside, the question is, how do you detain them?” Johnson said, further philosophizing about the limited abilities controlling radicalized terrorist detainees the correctional institutions have.
“Do you detain them en bloc as it were in one group and try and keep them together because that avoids them infecting or passing the virus of their beliefs to others in jails. Or do you disperse and try to stop them reinfecting each other?”
Police said that three people were injured in the incident, according to reports.
“The incident was quickly declared as a terrorist incident, and we believe it to be Islamist-related,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said.
D’Orsi said there was a bomb that was apparently strapped to the assailant’s body. But it was quickly determined to be a hoax, reported The Associated Press.
“Three victims have been taken to south London hospitals. One man with life-threatening injuries is being treated, along with a woman with non-life threatening injuries, while another woman has minor injuries,” D’Orsi added.
The suspect in the case was identified as Sudesh Amman, who’d been previously convicted of terrorism-related offenses, officials told The Telegraph, the BBC, and The Guardian.
In an earlier statement, Metropolitan Police said the suspect died after being shot by police. “A man has been shot by armed officers in #Streatham. At this stage, it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related,” police wrote in a statement on Sunday.
Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report
