Armed police responded - and in time to shoot both men.
The key here is that Plod must've either been in the area or alert to the situation, as armed police in Britain still are not common.
Quote:Man dead in suspected Woolwich terror attack
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An air ambulance and four crews attended the scene
Latest - London 'machete' attack Live
A man has died and two are injured after police responded to a reported machete attack in south-east London.
The government is reported to be treating the attack as a suspected terrorist incident and the prime minister said it was "truly shocking".
Eyewitnesses said a man was assaulted in a Woolwich street by two individuals who were later shot by officers.
Local MP Nick Raynsford said the dead man was a soldier at Woolwich barracks but this has not been confirmed.
Home Secretary Theresa May has summoned a meeting of the government's emergency response committee Cobra to assess the incident.
It is understood she has also requested updates from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, and the head of MI5.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the police view is that the attack may have been filmed and footage may exist.
People carrying out the attack were heard to say Allahu Akbar [God is Great] were heard, said our political editor.
London Ambulance Service confirmed one man had been found dead at the scene.
It said two men had been taken to hospital, one in a serious condition.
One of the men was airlifted from the scene, and another was taken away by road ambulance
A spokesperson said an air ambulance and four crews had attended the scene.
Quote:"They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road"
James, Eyewitness
Witnesses reported by the Press Association said two people had been shot after armed police were called to an incident in which a man was attacked with a machete-style knife.
One witness, identified only as James, said two men had attacked another man, aged about 20, who was wearing a T-shirt of military charity Help for Heroes.
"These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there," he told LBC radio.
He said after the "horrendous" attack, the two men, who were also in their 20s, stood around, waving knives and a gun, and asked people to take pictures of them "as if they wanted to be on TV or something".
"They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road," he said.
Thomas, a witness who contacted the BBC, said: "I got there minutes after it happened because you could hear gunshots from Woolwich High Street.
"Basically two men carried out an axe attack on a young army cadet walking along the street, by the looks of things the police responded and then shot them in front of the public, at the same time I couldn't really tell if the cadet was fatally or not hurt as police were crowded around him."
School lock-down
Footage of the scene in Woolwich
Meanwhile, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed it had been informed.
In a statement, the IPCC said: "Investigators have been deployed to the scene and to the post-incident process."
Scotland Yard said the incident happened in John Wilson Street, the A205, at 14:20 BST.
On its Twitter account, the Metropolitan Police helicopter team called the incident "serious".
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Officers have responded to an incident...
Head teacher David Dixon describes seeing a body in the street and hearing gunshots
"We believe at this stage officers were called to reports of an assault."
David Dixon, a local head teacher, told the BBC News Channel he walked out of the school gates and saw a body lying in the road a short distance away.
He then heard gunshots and instructed staff to lock all the gates of his school.
The air ambulance landed in the playground and most of the children have now gone home, he said.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Blood-stained man with weapons in his hands talking about his actions in attacking and murdering a man who is now confirmed as a serving soldier from the barracks in Woolwich (source of that info: live interview with MP on Ch4 News).
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
The soldier was ambushed by two men as he left the base in Woolwich, south-east London, who attacked him and then dragged his body into the middle of the road to pose for photographs while standing over him waving a machete and a gun, according to witnesses.
David Cameron is cutting short a meeting with European leaders to chair a meeting of the emergency committee Cobra tomorrow as police and security services investigate whether the two men later shot and wounded by police - were working alone or part of a bigger group.
"It's the most appalling crime," he told reporters in Paris. "We are obviously urgently seeking the full facts but there are strong indications that it's a terrorist incident."
He said that they were looking at every aspect of security for troops across Britain, but he added: "The best way to defeat terrorism is to make sure you continue to live your life and make sure that terrorism never wins."
London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "This afternoon's attack in Woolwich is a sickening, deluded and unforgiveable act of violence."
One of the suspected killers, who handed his gun to his alleged accomplice to address an onlooker with a camera, said the pair had carried out the attack "because David Cameron, British government sent troops in Arabic country".
As onlookers stood close by the armed men, he went on: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you," according to footage obtained by ITV News.
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."
The man, who spoke English without a foreign accent, then saunters back across the road to his victim lying in the street to join his apparent 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.
"The black guy ran at them with a meat cleaver before it stopped and he was right by the car when they shot him," said Julia Wilders, 51, who lived close by. The second man, who had a gun, was also shot, she said.
The men were taken to separate hospitals by air ambulance and ambulance last night but they were expected to survive their injuries, according to police.
The men were believed to have waited outside the Woolwich barracks of the 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, which has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, where one of its members, Sergeant Johnson Beharry, won the VC.
The Independent understands the dead soldier who was wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt - was a member of another regiment, currently based overseas.
Witnesses suggested that he left the barracks on foot when he was attacked in an apparently pre-arranged ambush. Witness Graham Wilders said it appeared the men had been rammed by a car and was attacked while he was propped up against a wall of a block of flats.
One witness, identified as James, said he and his partner saw two black men attack a young man aged around 20 in a Help for Heroes T-shirt with kitchen knives like he was "a piece of meat".
"They were hacking at this poor guy, literally," one witness called James told LBC Radio, who said that a group of brave women were trying to shield the soldier from the two men.
"They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him. These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there."
Children returning from a trip returned to nearby Mulgrave Primary School and were kept locked inside while the operation played out.
Islamists had threatened a number of times to behead a British soldier in retaliation for involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Six years ago a group of British Pakistanis based in Birmingham were convicted of plotting such an attack and their leader, Parviz Khan, received a life sentence.
He admitted planning to lure the soldier off the streets then film his beheading. He was described in court as having the "most violent and extreme Islamist views" and his aim was to deter any Muslim from joining the British Army.
Home Secretary Theresa May is chairing a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee after briefings from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and the Director General of the Security Service, Andrew Parker.
Although there has as yet been no official confirmation, Whitehall sources indicated they were working on the assumption that the murder was terrorist-related.
"It has been confirmed to me that a man has been brutally murdered this afternoon in south-east London. Two other men were shot by armed police and they are currently receiving treatment for their injuries….This is a sickening and barbaric attack," Mrs May said.
Police had set up a series of cordons around the scene last night with extra police patrols in the area and helicopters crossing the skies overhead. The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it sent 12 investigators to the scene to investigate the police shooting after reports of at least six shots being fired
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"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Hacking another human to death with cleavers is bestial.
The killer with the blood stained hands, clutching the machetes, apologising that "women had to witness this", is speaking with a south London accent. He also talks about what has happened in his "country".
There are rumours / leaks that at least one of the killers was of Nigerian origin.
We shall see how this plays out.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
@BOYADEE's tweets from the scene were not geotagged. however, has previously tweeted geotagged photos from the neighborhood of the attack, providing some evidence he may have been in the area at the time:
A member of the U.K. parliament named George Galloway responded to the bizarre machete attack in London, which some reports say killed a British soldier, with a quip on Twitter about U.K. foreign policy. "This sickening atrocity in London is exactly what we are paying the same kind of people to do in Syria," he wrote, provoking immediate controversy. Galloway, who opposes his country's decision to support some rebel groups in Syria, seems to be arguing that those rebels are akin to the machete attackers. While it's not clear why the two men killed a third in the London neighborhood of Woolwich, one of them later said, with blood still on his hands, "The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth." Since making his comment, Galloway has been embroiled in a number of arguments on Twitter over the statement. He has dug in, saying that both Syrian rebels and the Woolwich attackers are "Al Qaeda followers. Sickening murderers. The kind we arm and pay for in Syria." When one Twitter user responded, "I don't think we go up to random people, run them over, then behead them," Galloway shot back, "no, we pay Al Qaeda to do so. In Syria."
Galloway has a history of controversial remarks on U.K. foreign policy in the Middle East. In 2003, as the Iraq War divided U.K. politics, Galloway was formally expelled from the Labour Party on charges of "inciting Arabs to fight British troops" (the weird wording of that will be clearer in a moment) and "inciting British troops to defy orders." Galloway made his offending statements on Abu Dhabi TV, when he urged British troops to disobey "illegal orders," which he apparently saw as applying to the entire war, and seemed to suggest that neighboring Middle Eastern states should come to Iraq's defense. "Why don't Arabs do something for the Iraqis?" he asked. "Where are the Arab armies? We wonder when the Arab leaders wake up? When are they going to stand by the Iraqi people?"Western governments have indeed worried that funding intended for moderate Syrian rebel groups might end up in the hands of extremists, such as the al-Qaeda-allied group Jabhat al-Nusra. And some rebels have committed atrocities. Still, it seems a stretch to suggest that the U.K. government is paying Syrian opposition groups specifically to kill civilians or that it is seeking to fund al-Qaeda affiliates. He's also referred to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime as "the last castle of Arab dignity." Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, after a recent spat with Galloway, made clear that he will try to unseat him in the next election. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worl...-in-syria/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Magda Hassan Wrote:This is being seen as a 'terrorist' event and not an 'ordinary street crime' event?
It was a brutal murder - bestial - even if the target was a soldier. But haven't you heard, Magda, there is no more 'ordinary crime' only terrorism and crimes against the state. I sense these two men were not set up for this....this is truly 'blowback' in its most bestial and horrid form. Sadly, by the 'rules of war' [a sick idea, but I digress...], it is fair game to kill a soldier/combatant in the field of battle/war - but to be honest, we [US/UK/NATO/some others] have declared the entire World their battleground and anyone in it as a 'combatant'. Such blowback was inevitable. The guys didn't even try to get away...they were there for 20 minutes talking to the crowd and encouraging photos and talking to them about the why of their butchery. The UKs reaction will be what the USAs would be...more troops, police, surveillance, hate - inside and outside. Nothing learned and the World not a safer nor better place. The same does happen in far off places unseen and at the sharp end of a drone missile or bomb, etc. Hacking a person to death with a butchers cleaver is especially brutal - the end result is the same. No one in power in the 'West' is even thinking - let alone acting - toward or for Peace; instead it is all about endless war with an unseen enemy that is everywhere. How come no one is attacking Costa Rica and doing 'terrorist' actions there? Simple, they harm no one - they don't even have a military.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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