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‘Barbaric Attack’ in London Prompts Meeting on Terror ‘Barbaric Attack’ in London Prompts Meeting on Terror
(35 minutes later)
LONDON — Britain’s top security officials held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening, after police officers shot two men who were suspected of killing what some reports identified as British soldier on a street in southeast London. LONDON — In an attack that raised new fears of terrorism in Britain, a man walking on Wednesday near a military barracks in south London was rammed by a car on a sidewalk and was then hacked to death by two assailants wielding a cleaver and a kitchen knife, according to accounts of witnesses and video taken after the attack. Some accounts said the victim had been beheaded.
Prime Minister David Cameron said there was a “strong indication” that the attack was a terrorist act, the BBC reported. ITV News showed images of a man with bloodied hands, carrying a large kitchen knife and a cleaver, saying, “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.” British officials did not identify him by name, but the French president, François Hollande, referred to the victim as “a soldier” in expressing France’s sympathy to the visiting British prime minister, David Cameron, who was in Paris when the attack took place.
In a statement, Home Secretary Theresa May said that a man had been “brutally murdered” in what she described as a “sickening and barbaric attack.” The two suspects were shot and wounded by armed police, officials said, and were in the hospital under police guard. One suspect was described as being in serious condition. One of the men shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” as the attack proceeded, government officials said.
Mr. Cameron’s office said that he had asked Ms. May to hold a meeting of the COBR emergency committee, often referred to as Cobra, which coordinates the reaction to crises and episodes of terrorism. Mr. Cameron, who interrupted a European tour to return to London on Wednesday night, said at a news conference at the Élysée Palace in Paris that the killing was “an appalling murder” and “absolutely sickening.”
British news media quoted Nick Raynsford, the local member of Parliament, as saying that the dead man was a soldier at a nearby barracks, although that information was not confirmed by the British authorities. “There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident,” Mr. Cameron said.
In a statement, Simon Letchford, a police commander, said that officers were called in the early afternoon to John Wilson Street in Woolwich, where one man was being assaulted by two other men wielding knives and possibly a gun. ITV News showed a video clip taken with a cellphone in which a man who appeared to be in his 20s or early 30s, holding a cleaver and knife with bloodied hands, offered what appeared to be a political message before the police arrived.
“A number of weapons were reportedly being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm,” Mr. Letchford said. “I am sorry that women and children should have to see this,” the man said. He then referred to what appeared to be a motive for the attack, saying that it had been carried out “because of what’s going on in our own countries.” That phrase has been used by militants to refer to conflicts in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
“Shortly afterwards firearms officers arrived at the scene,” he said. “On their arrival at the scene they found a man, who was later pronounced dead.” The assault took place on a busy suburban street in Woolwich, the site of one of the main military barracks in London. A neighborhood primary school is nearby, and witnesses said that some of those who saw the attack were parents and children returning home from the school.
“Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police. They were taken to separate London hospitals; they are receiving treatment for their injuries,” Mr. Letchford said. A small blue car involved in the ramming of the victim appeared to have collided with a telephone pole afterward. It was visible in photographs and television coverage of the scene, with extensive damage to its hood and front window.
Witnesses said they saw two men standing with blades over a man lying prone on the sidewalk, beside a wall. Shortly after the attack, these witnesses said, a man with a handgun leapt from an unmarked car and trained his gun on the assailants, shouting to passers-by to clear the area.
With Mr. Cameron in France, the home secretary, Theresa May, called an emergency meeting of the Cobra committee, a group of cabinet ministers and high-level security officials that oversees the operations of police and security agencies at times of high security alerts. Officials said that the group had ordered a tightening of security around all military barracks and other security facilities in Britain, including police stations.
Ms. May described what had happened as a “sickening and barbaric attack.”
“It has been confirmed to me that a man has been brutally murdered,” she said after a meeting with the chief of Scotland Yard, Bernard Hogan-Howe, and Andrew Parker, the director general of MI5, the domestic security service. “Two other men were shot by armed police and they are currently receiving treatment for their injuries.”
In a Twitter post, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the attack was a “sickening deluded and unforgivable act of violence.”In a Twitter post, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the attack was a “sickening deluded and unforgivable act of violence.”

Stephen Castle contributed reporting.