Terrorist attacks in England

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Terrorist attacks in England

By Brittany (.Brittany.)

As of September 2017, England has gone through five different terrorist attacks. These terrorist attacks shook the United Kingdom and others around the world. Between the months of May and September, 37 people have been killed, and approximately 294 people have been injured.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for many attacks in the world during the year 2017. ISIS is part of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and they have gone on a huge mission by attacking many different countries, most of which are in Europe.

The law enforcement in England has raised the amount of security for special events and on street watch. This hopefully will prevent more innocent people from being victims of incidents like these crimes.

Westminster Attack

The Westminster Attack, on March 22nd was the first attack in 2017. The attacker was identified as 52-year-old Khalid Masood. The attack has been said to be an act of terrorism from the Islamic group, ISIS.

The day of the attack started off normally, but everything changed at 2:40 PM when Khalid drove a Hyundai SUV through the crowd on the Westminster Bridge. Once across the bridge, Khalid crashed the SUV into the railing outside of the Parliament yard. He then burst through the gates of the Palace of Westminster with two long swords. He then stabbed an unarmed guard, 48-year-old Keith Palmer, a Police Constable for the Metropolitan police force, where he worked for 15 years. He unfortunately didn't survive.

When the attack started, the staff within the Westminster was immediately put into lock down and remained that way for approximately four hours. Prime Minister Theresa May was seen being taken to a silver Jaguar to be rushed away from the attacks.

The attack took the lives of nine people. Seven were members of the public, Palmer and Masood both died even though emergency personal tried as hard as they could to save their lives.

Khalid had been known by the police as he had several criminal offenses, ranging from 1983-2003. However, there were no previous hints that he would take part in a terrorist attack.

Manchester Arena Bombing

On Monday May 22, 2017, the American singer Ariana Grande was performing in Manchester. At approximately 10:30 UTC, Grande finished her performance and left the stage. This is when a 22-year-old named Salman Abedi showed up in the foyer of the concert venue. What people didn't know is that his rucksack contained a bomb. The bomb killed most people standing near him and injured people up to twenty meters away from the blast. When the concert goers were coming out of the arena they saw glass, metal nuts, and nails on the ground, this was most likely from the structure that got damaged when the bomb was detonated. Among the victims who lost their lives were 7 children between the ages of 8-17, and 15 adults between the ages of 18-50.

Hours after she heard of the attack, Ariana Grande tweeted one word: "Broken". Grande was not physically harmed in any way, but she was extremely distraught about what happened. She reportedly reached out to the families of the 22 people who lost their lives to offer to pay for the funerals.

Less than two weeks after the attack, Grande got a few other singers together, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus, to perform in a charity concert to raise money. Despite London going through an attack less than 24 hours before Grande held her benefit concert, it was still a huge hit. Over 50,000 fans showed up to it. The benefit concert was called "One Love, Manchester", and raised approximately 13 Million USD.

Some of the survivors from this attack mentioned that the security wasn't checking any bags as they entered the venue, so anyone could bring anything into the venue.

London Bridge

On June 3, 2017 at approximately 10:08 PM, a 27-year-old male named Khuram Butt, was the man behind the wheel of the van that drove across the London Bridge, before stabbing victims in a local bar at the nearby Borough Market. Butt was traveling approximately 80 KM/HR (50 MPH) across the bridge. This attack took the lives of 8 people and injured 48 others. The attack lasted a total of eight minutes before police arrived, while paramedics were on scene within six minutes. A few days later, on June 6, 30-year-old Rachid Redouane was arrested for being apart of the terrorist attacks, what he was responsible for is currently unknown. ISIS has claimed responsibility for this attack.

Finsbury Park Mosque

On June 19, 2017 at approximately 12:20 AM, a 47-year-old man named Darren Osborne drove a van into a group of Muslim worshipers that were leaving the mosque in London. There was one victim who died and ten others were injured, eight of which had to be hospitalized. The suspect was arrested at the scene with the help of members of the public.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump reached out to Twitter and posted the following tweets in regards to the attacks:

"We strongly condemn the Finsbury Park terror attack. In these difficult weeks for London & the UK, know you'll always have Canada's support" - Justin Trudeau, June 19, 2017 via Twitter.

"My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones" - Emmanuel Macron, June 4, 2017 via Twitter.

However, when it comes to President Trump's tweets, a lot of people were not happy with what he tweeted.

"We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!" - Donald Trump June 3, 2017 via Twitter.

"Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U.K we will be there - We are with you. God Bless" - Donald Trump, June 3, 2017 via Twitter

"At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!" -Donald Trump, June 4, 2017 via Twitter.

London Subway Attack

On September 15, 2017 at 8:20 AM, two males placed an explosive device onto a packed subway in Parson's Green Station, London. The device did not fully detonate but injured 30 people. Thankfully, there are a lot of cameras in the area, so police were going through a lot of security footage right after the attack to find any clues or leads as to who would put an explosive device on a packed subway.

Police worked very hard to find the suspects, and their hard work paid off. They managed to arrest both suspects before midnight on September 15. The suspects are aged 18 and 21, the names have not yet been released. ISIS has also claimed responsibility for this attack. After this fifth attack, England has raised their terrorist level to "Critical".

Conclusion

Since then, the UK has lowered their terrorist threat level to "Severe", which means that another attack is highly likely.

Resources

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...hing-know-far/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-over-incident

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8173546.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...hing-know-far/

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-40008389

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/europ...ent/index.html