An attacker entered London Central Mosque during afternoon prayer and stabbed a 70-year-old prayer leader on Thursday, before being subdued by worshipers and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the police said.<\/p>\n
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An attacker entered London Central Mosque during afternoon prayer and stabbed a 70-year-old prayer leader on Thursday, before being subdued by worshipers and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the police said.<\/p>\n
People who attend the mosque regularly said they were familiar with the suspect, and the Metropolitan Police said they were not treating the stabbing as an act of terrorism. The victim\u2019s wound was not considered life-threatening, the police said. The injured man was a muezzin, the person who leads the call to prayer, and he had just begun singing when he was assaulted, the mosque said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attacker was apprehended by the worshipers until the police arrived and arrested him,\u201d the mosque\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a brief statement on Twitter that he was \u201csaddened\u201d to hear of the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so awful that this should happen, especially in a place of worship,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Afternoon prayer had just begun when the attack took place, and images and video footage posted on Twitter showed people at the mosque, near Regent\u2019s Park in Central London, wrestling a barefoot man wearing a red jacket to the ground.<\/p>\n
A video taken inside the mosque shows a crowd of men gathered around the suspect as the police restrain him. A knife can be seen on the floor a few feet away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An attacker entered London Central Mosque during afternoon prayer and stabbed a 70-year-old prayer leader on Thursday, before being subdued by worshipers and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the police said. An attacker entered London Central Mosque during afternoon prayer and stabbed a 70-year-old prayer leader on Thursday, before being subdued by worshipers and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[107,214],"class_list":["post-8716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-london","tag-mosque"],"yoast_head":"\n