Underground knife attacker charged in London

A 29-year-old man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder following last Saturday’s knife attack at a London Underground station. Muhaydin Mire is accused of sawing at the throat of a 56-year-old man at Leytonstone station, causing a 12cm wound that required five hours of surgery.

Mire, who wore a grey sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms in court, and spoke only to give his name, address and date of birth, was remanded in custody pending a hearing at the Old Bailey next Friday.

During the incident, the attacker is alleged to have shouted “this is for Syria” and “blood will be spilt” before he was tackled by two passers-by and eventually subdued by police using a taser gun.

Describing the knife attack as “hideous”, David Cameron paid tribute to the passers-by who confronted the attacker and the police who subdued and arrested him. And the prime minister praised a bystander who shouted at the culprit, “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv”, a phrase that has gone viral on social media.

‘Brilliant statement’

“Let me also pay credit to the person – you can’t quite see who it is from that film – who made that brilliant statement about, er, ‘you ain’t no Muslim’,” Mr Cameron said.

“Some of us have dedicated speeches and media appearances and soundbites and everything to this subject. But ‘you ain’t no Muslim, bruv’ said it all much better than I ever could. Thank you, because that will be applauded around the country.”

Police said they were treating the Leytonstone attack as a terrorist incident, but there is no evidence that it was directed by any terrorist organisation. British Transport Police said that it would increase the number of visible police patrols at stations, including the use of armed and plainclothes officers. The presence of conspicuously armed police in public places is designed as much to deter attackers as to deal with incidents.

The terror threat level in the United Kingdom has been “severe”, the second-highest possible, since August 2014. Ken Marsh, head of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said he hoped the latest attack would encourage police chiefs to increase the number of officers carrying firearms.

“We are not an armed service, but I hope that because of the threat we face, we will see more armed response vehicles in boroughs,” he said.