A MAN has been shot by armed officers in Streatham and the incident has been declared as terrorist-related, the Metropolitan Police have said.
The Metropolitan Police said the shooting occurred at around 2pm on Streatham High Road on Sunday.
The force believes there are also "two injured victims" from the incident and are awaiting updates on their condition.
In an earlier tweet, the Met said: "At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed.
"The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related."
Gulled Bulhan, a 19-year-old student from Streatham, claimed to have witnessed the shooting on Streatham High Road in front of a Boots store.
He told the PA news agency: "I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer - as they were in civilian clothing.
"The man was then shot. I think I heard three gun shots but I can't quite remember.
"After that I ran into the library to get to safety.
"From the library I saw a load of ambulances and armed police officers arrive on the scene."
Mr Bulhan said people began running into nearby stores after the incident.
"We were all informed to stay in buildings by armed police, until we were evacuated," he said.
Commenting on the incident, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "I am in close contact with the Met Commissioner and local representatives, and want to thank our police, security and emergency services staff for their swift and courageous response. They truly are the best of us.
"Terrorists seek to divide us and to destroy our way of life - here in London we will never let them succeed."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related.
"My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel