LONDON—One of the victims of a stabbing attack in the English town of Reading on Saturday was a U.S. citizen, the U.S. ambassador to London confirmed on Monday.
Authorities have attributed the attack in which three people were killed to terrorism.
U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson on twitter offered his “deepest condolences” to the families of those killed.
“To our great sorrow, this includes an American citizen. Our thoughts are with all those affected. We condemn the attack absolutely and have offered our assistance to British law enforcement,” he tweeted.
I offer my deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the attack on June 20. To our great sorrow, this includes an American citizen. Our thoughts are with all those affected. We condemn the attack absolutely and have offered our assistance to British law enforcement.
— Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) June 22, 2020
The Philadelphia Inquirer named the U.S. victim as Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who had lived in Britain for 15 years.
British teacher James Furlong, 36, has also been named as one of the victims. “He was beautiful, intelligent, honest and fun,” his parents said.
The English town held a minute’s silence on Monday for the victims of the stabbing in the latest terrorism-linked attack.
A Western security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the suspect was a 25-year-old Libyan called Khairi Saadallah.
Calling the incident terrorism, police said a 25-year-old had been arrested but they were not hunting others. “What we saw here on Saturday evening in Reading was the actions of one lone individual,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Priti Patel said.
On Mi5’s Radar
The security source told Reuters that Saadallah had come across the radar of Britain’s domestic security agency MI5 last year over intelligence he had aspirations to travel for extremist purposes, although his plans then came to nothing.
“The security services have records on thousands of people and rightly so,” said Patel, adding she was limited in what she could say because the investigation was live.
The attack was reminiscent of some recent incidents in Britain that authorities also called terrorism.
In February, police shot dead a man, previously jailed for promoting violent Islamist material, who had stabbed two people on a busy street in south London. Last November, another man who had been jailed for terrorism offenses stabbed two people to death on London Bridge before he too was shot dead by police.
By Sarah Young and Guy Faulconbridge
