our land

Description

A man believed to be a soldier has been beheaded in an attack on a street near the Woolwich barracks in London, witnesses report. Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford confirmed tonight that two men were shot by armed officers. Exclusive ITV footage shows that one man was filmed wielding a bloodied meat cleaver and saying: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you." He adds: "We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you." He said there is a "strong indication" the attack was a terrorist incident. Prime Minister David Cameron described the killing as "absolutely sickening... a most appalling crime" and asked the Home Secretary Theresa May to chair a meeting of Cobra, the Government's emergency committee. He added: "We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country and we never buckle in the face of them." He is returning to London early from a meeting in Paris. Mrs May tonight confirmed she has been briefed by the Director General of the Security Service MI5 and the Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe on the "sickening and barbaric'' incident in Woolwich. She said: "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." One Whitehall source said the attackers were heard to shout 'Allah Akbar'. Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford said in a statement: "At approximately 1420 we were called to reports of an assault in John Wilson Street, Woolwich, where one man was being assaulted by two other men. "A number of weapons were reported as being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm. Officers including local Greenwich officers arrived at the scene and shortly after firearms officers attended the scene. "On their arrival at the scene they found a man, who was later pronounced dead. At this early stage I am unable to provide any further information about the man who has died. "Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police. They have both been taken to separate London hospitals. They are receiving treatment for their injuries." Several witnesses described seeing a "beheading" as a man was reportedly attacked with a machete-style weapon and dumped in a south-east London street. Woolwich and Greenwich MP Nick Raynsford said he understood that a serving soldier was dead. The Ministry of Defence have not confirmed whether the dead man was a soldier. London Air Ambulance confirmed a man was found dead as one patient was airlifted from the scene, while another was taken away by road ambulance. One witness, identified only as James, said he and his partner saw two men attack a young man aged around 20 like he was "a piece of meat". "They were hacking at this poor guy, literally," he told LBC radio. "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." "They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road." Local head teacher David Dixon 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. "All the traffic had stopped. There were gunshots after that so I am not sure about the situation after," he told BBC News. "But all I needed to know was that there was an emergency and we needed to go into our emergency procedures to make sure that the children were as safe as possible. That was my main priority. "We got all the staff to get the children...