Two shot by police after soldier hacked to death on street near...

Two shot by police after soldier hacked to death on street near Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich
by: CHARLES MIRANDA in London
From: News Limited Network
May 23, 2013 8:07AM
Two men kill soldier with meat cleavers
Shot by police on busy London street
Witnesses: 'hacked like a piece of meat'

A SERVING British soldier was hacked to death in south east London metres away from his barracks by two men with meat cleavers ranting "we swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you".
In extraordinary broad daylight scenes in Woolwich, the men allegedly ran the man down in a car then tried to hack the man’s head off and have their own crime filmed then waited 20 minutes for police to turn up before charging at them with meat cleavers, knives and a hand gun.
Both men, shouting "Allah Akbar" or "God is great" in Arabic, were shot by police snipers, including a female officer, and were this morning (AEST) in hospital under guard in a serious but stable condition.
The British government last night convened the “Cobra” committee, including emergency services leaders, to coordinate a response to the unprecedented attack which is being described as a terrorist attack.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in Paris meeting his counterpart and had to rush back to London, described the crime as “sickening” and an appalling murder as he summonsed his emergency Cobra ministers.
He said it was a “terrorist incident”.
"We have suffered these attacks before, we have always beaten them back," Mr Cameron said. "We will not be cowed, we will never buckle."

The Opposition leader Ed Miliband was also cutting short a trip to Germany.
Police were last night declining to formally identify the victim as a soldier but numerous of sources have he had exited Woolwich barracks, which is home to the of the 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, and was wearing a "Help for Heroes" T-Shirt, a charity helping the injured and veterans of the armed services.
Dozens of people witness attack

Witnesses have given terrifying accounts of what they saw on the main street in the suburb at 2.20pm (London time, 11.20pm AEST), describing two black men as they chopped at the victim, a young soldier, “like a piece of meat”.
“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” said one witness, identified only as James as he fought back tears.
“They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him. These two guys were crazed.”

The men, described as "animals", then apparently stood around the body and demanded shocked witnesses take photographs of them.
TV network ITV News aired footage of one of the men walking away carrying a knife with blood on his hands and ranting.
Other news sites ran video of one of the attackers - with a bloodied meat cleaver in his hand - saying: "You people will never be safe.

"Remove your government, they don't care about you. You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start bussin' our guns? You think politicians are going to die?
"No it's going to be the average guy, like you, and your children.
"So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so you can all live in peace."

With his hands bloodied and carrying a cleaver, he told the bystander with a camera: "I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands our women have to see the same.
"You people will never be safe. Remove your governments – they don’t care about you."
He also added: “We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

The man, who spoke English without a foreign accent, then sauntered back across the road to his victim lying in the street to join his accomplice.
The two men made no attempt to escape and then charged a police car carrying an armed police team when it arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the killing, according to a witness.
'They were using meat cleavers to hack him up'

"The black guy ran at them with a meat cleaver before it stopped and he was right by the car when they shot him,” Julia Wilders, 51, who lives nearby, was quoted as saying British media
"There were two black guys that looked like they were trying to resuscitate a white guy on the floor.
"I thought there'd been an accident but then I saw they were using meat cleavers to hack him up.
"We live just behind where it happened and once we got back we walked back to have a look and that's when I saw one of the black guys pull out a handgun.
"My husband screamed at me to get back. I was petrified.
"As I was running back I saw the police pull up and the black guy was running towards the police car and they shot him."
Another witness, Shane Webb, 48, an electrician who lives in a tower block overlooking the scene, says he looked out of the window of his flat after hearing a loud bang.
"There was a white man lying in the middle of the street. He was definitely dead. He was wearing a bomber jacket," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph.
"As I was watching a police car pulled up and two cops got out.
"They both just raised their guns and fired. There were about five or six shots very fast and one of the black guys just went down. I don't know if he was dead or not, but he just collapsed, just went down.
"They were firing at both of them and I think the other was hit as well, but I couldn't see that very well."
Local rapper Boya Dee described the events on Twitter.
“The first guy goes for the female fed [police officer] with the machete and she not even ramping she took man out like robocop never seen nutn like it,” he wrote.
“Then the next breda try buss off the rusty 45 [gun] and it just backfires and blows mans finger clean off... Feds didnt pet to just take him out!!”
He went on: “Mate ive seen alot of s*** im my time but that has to rank sumwhere in the top 3. I couldnt believe my eyes. That was some movie s***.”
Another witness, Luke Huseyin, who lives on the street, said he heard a bang and looked out his window to see a blue car had crashed, apparently into the soldier.
'People were screaming and running away'
He then described how two black men got out of the car dragging the white man, aged in his 20s, across the road before stabbing and slashing him with a machete and a knife.
“I don’t think it took long before he was dead,” he said.
“There were people passing by who were screaming and running away. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The 32-year-old described how they then dragged their dead victim back into the middle of the road then waited for police and charged at them when they arrived.
As the men hacked their victim, who had just left the barracks, they allegedly shouted “ We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you”.
One attacker asked people on the street to take his photo.
Big police presence after attack
More than 40 police officers were still at the scene at Woolwich as darkness fell, piecing together events to establish whether the attack was premeditated or opportunistic.
Markers were strewn across the street and pavement, plastic covers were pasted to the road over what is believed to be the significant number of weapons used in the attack.
Floodlights were being set up with the cordon to remain overnight . Officers also moved door-to-door seeking statements and more mobile phone footage or images.
Military personnel were also holding meetings at the local police station last night.
The military has always had a high presence in the area, with the barracks having existed there for centuries.
Local police have also called for calmed in the mixed-race area. One witness has said they allegedly recognised one of the attackers as having been preaching in the town centre the previous week in a "political" rant.

Buckingham Palace last night issued a statement describing the Queen's dismay at events. It vowed a scheduled meeting she was to make to Woolwich barracks next week would go ahead.
A number of politicians have described the resilience of the British people in the face of the extraordinary scene in a combined bid to call for calm.
There are some fears there could be reprisal attacks over what is being described as a politically motivated attack in the name of Allah.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/two-shot-by-police-after-soldiers-hacking-death-near-royal-artillery-barracks-in-woolwich/story-fndir2ev-1226648801254#ixzz2U40Nya4q