Video After The Jump
Footage of one of the men suspected of hacking to death a young man, thought to be a soldier, in broad daylight in south-east London attempting to justify the attack has been broadcast on ITV News.
The astonishing video shows a man with bloodied palms and holding a cleaver discuss the killing with a member of the public filming him.
The attack in John Wilson Street, Woolwich, has been described as a suspected terrorist attack by government sources.
Witnesses have described two men hacking a man with cleavers before dragging his body into the middle of the street ‘like a piece of meat’.
In the video shown by ITV News during its 6.30 p.m. bulletin and later posted online, the man, wearing a grey hooded jacket and black woolly hat, apologizes to people who witnessed the attack.
"We must fight them as they fight us, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," he says to unseen bystanders, as other people stand around in the background.
"I apologize that women had to witness this today but in our land our women have to see the same."
The man, who speaks clear English without a hint of a foreign accent, adds: "You people will never be safe – remove your government, they don’t care about you."
He then walks back towards the victim lying prone in the street to talk to the second suspect.
Later footage shows the men also lying in the street after being shot by armed police called to the scene.
They are being treated in separate hospitals, with one suspect in a critical condition.
Home secretary Theresa May 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."
"This is a sickening and barbaric attack."
David Cameron is set to return to the UK tonight after cancelling plans to remain in Paris after talks with French president Francois Hollande.
The prime minister, who described the attack as "truly shocking," said: "We’ve had these type of attacks in our country before, and we never buckle in the face of them."
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UK soldier beheaded outside army barracks in Woolwich, London
**UPDATE** May 24th.
The brave WPC first on the scene at the Woolwich beheading comes within inches of death, a dramatic Daily Mirror video shows.
The driver, unable to draw her firearm, is saved by a male colleague in the back who fires his machine-gun through his window at a suspect who is charging at her.
The callous Islamic extremists had lured police to the scene by dragging the body of the murdered fusilier – named yesterday as Lee Rigby, 25 – into the middle of the road.
Lee Rigby
When they see the first police car arrive, the pair split up.
Blade-wielding Michael Adebolajo, 28, runs at officers head-on and his accomplice, named locally as 22-year-old Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, advances alongside, aiming his gun at them.
The film of the 10 seconds of terror shows how Adebolajo got within two feet of the WPC who was driving the armed response BMW X5.
As he is sent sprawling to the ground by the force of the two shots, two officers jump out to cover him.
They appear not to see Adebowale aiming a handgun at them.
But a third SO19 marksman from the specialist Trojan unit spots him and he is brought to the ground as six more shots ring out in the suburban South East London street.
After seeing the Mirror’s exclusive video, Former Det Ch Insp Peter Kirkham, an expert in firearms tactics, said last night: “I have never seen anything like this before, or even heard of it happening.
"For two suspects to carry out a brutal attack like this then stand around in plain sight waiting for the police is crazy.”
The dramatic climax to the horrific attack – in which dad of one Lee, from Manchester, was hacked to death – was filmed by a resident in a tower block overlooking the scene in Artillery Road, Woolwich.
The footage reveals how, after beheading the soldier, they set up their ambush bid to murder the first police officers to arrive.
For eight minutes before that, the suspects are seen talking to passers-by and three women who try to help the victim.
But as soon they see the patrol car turn the corner the suspects spring into action, in a move designed to give the gunman time to target officers.
Cleaver: The suspect ran at the police BMW
The 15-minute 50-second footage was filmed 100ft up from the windows of a flat as calls flooded in to police at 2.20pm on Wednesday.
Scotland Yard assigned an armed response unit four minutes later. And it arrived 10 minutes after that.
At one point an ambulance drives towards Lee’s body and swerves round him when the two armed suspects are seen standing nearby.
Eight minutes 21 seconds into the video, the men sprint towards the police BMW X5 which comes round the corner and skids to a halt.
Adebolajo, in a charcoal hooded top and black woolly hat, charges head-long towards the driver’s side of the marked silver patrol car, in an apparent attempt to attack officers.
He drops one of his blades and moves the other into his right hand as he rushes wildly at the vehicle.
The second suspect had a gun
Just as he is within touching distance, two shots ring out and he is sent sprawling.
The officers took a split-second decision to open fire with hollow point bullets while they were sitting in the car, either through open windows or partially opened doors.
Adebowale immediately takes off with a handgun, running past the three officers as they emerge from the car.
In his light-coloured trench coat he can be seen pointing the revolver at the officers as they tackle Adebolajo.
As he disappears briefly behind a tree four more shots ring out, including one from him according to some witnesses, and he stumbles and falls near a road sign.
As the cops advance on the blade maniac, the female driver can be seen carrying a bright yellow Taser.
She is flanked by two male colleagues who run out from either side of the car, with Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns.
The female officer drops her Taser and pulls out a handgun and covers the knifeman as he lays prone.
The man who filmed the footage said: “I got my camera phone out and started filming as I thought it was a robbery or a kidnapping.”
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