Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Katy Clifton

Woman hurt in Streatham terror attack was teacher at south London primary school

Emergency services at the scene of the Streatham terror attack (Picture: Getty Images)

A woman who was injured during the Streatham terror attack was a teacher at a south London primary school, it is understood.

The Archdiocese of Southwark has confirmed one of its female employees was among the injured during the knife rampage on Sunday afternoon.

The woman, one of three people injured during Sudesh Amman's attack, is understood to work at St Bede's Catholic Infant and Nursery school.

A source at Archdiocese said to the Guardian: "We can confirm that an employee was injured, but we are not going to say anymore.

"We are looking to protect her. She is recovering and is doing OK but it is very early days."

Forensic officers examine the scene where a man was shot and killed by armed police (Getty Images)

John Wilson, the Archbishop of Southwark, added: "We will continue to stand together as a community. We will not allow this event, terrible though it is, to divide us.

"We are from different countries and religious beliefs but we are united in our common humanity and our shared desire for a peaceful coexistence where every person is respected and can live in safety."

It comes as the Government is set to introduce emergency legislation to prevent the automatic release of terrorist offenders from prison.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told MPs in the Commons: “Yesterday’s appalling incident makes the case plainly for immediate action.

“We cannot have the situation, as we saw tragically in yesterday’s case, where an offender – a known risk to innocent members of the public – is released early by automatic process of law without any oversight by the Parole Board.

“We will be doing everything we can to protect the public, that is our primary duty.

“We will, therefore, introduce emergency legislation to ensure an end to terrorist offenders getting released automatically having served half of their sentence with no check or review.

Amman, a convicted terrorist, knifed a female cyclist in the back before slashing a man in the stomach outside the White Lion pub in front of horrified families and shoppers at around 2pm on Sunday.

Amman was shot and killed by police ()

The cyclist, a woman in her 50s, suffered non-life threatening injuries and was discharged from hospital.

The man, in his 30s, is no longer considered to be in a life-threatening condition after treatment, police said.

A second woman, in her 20s, who suffered minor injuries believed to have been caused by glass following the discharge of a police firearm, continues to receive treatment.

Amman, 20, was quickly shot by armed police who were monitoring him because he was still feared to be dangerous after recently being released from Belmarsh prison halfway through a sentence for terror offences.

He was jailed in 2018 for 40 months for 13 offences involving the possession and distribution of terrorist material after an Old Bailey hearing which heard evidence about his fascination with knives and desire to carry out an attack.

On Monday, Amman's mother described him as a "nice, polite boy" who was radicalised while in a high-security jail and by viewing extremist material online.

Haleema Faraz Khan told Sky News that her son, who had wanted to study biomedical science, had seemed “normal” when she visited him on Thursday.

She also spoke to him hours before he staged the attack, when he called to ask her to make some mutton biryani.

His mother told the broadcaster: “He became more religious inside prison, that’s where I think he became radicalised.

“He was watching and listening to things online which brainwashed him.”

Emergency services at the scene of the terror attack (PA)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Government will crack down on the early release of terrorist prisoners.

“We are bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release. The difficulty is how to apply retrospectively to the cohort of people who currently qualify,” he said.

“It is time to take action to ensure, irrespective of the law we are bringing in, people in the current stream don’t qualify automatically for early release.”

Police in Streatham (AP)

The atrocity follows the attack at Fishmongers’ Hall in the City of London in November, when another convicted terrorist, Usman Khan, murdered two people despite being on probation.

Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death at the rehabilitation conference.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.