London mosque attack suspect named as Darren Osborne

The man who was arrested on suspicion of carrying out an attack on worshippers outside a mosque in London has been named as 47-year-old Darren Osborne from Cardiff.

He was held on charges of driving a van into Muslim worshippers who had been attending evening prayers at the Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and later further arrested over alleged terror offences.

Osborne, who reportedly shouted “I want to kill all Muslims” as he drove the van into the crowd, reportedly a married father of four who grew up in the town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. Police on Monday searched an area in a cul-de-sac in the Llanederyn area, close to the Cardiff golf club, in the north-east of the city suburbs.

Neighbours spoke to the British media of their shock after seeing pictures of Osborne being arrested by police.

Dave Ashford, 52, said: “Someone called me and said it was him and I said ‘It can’t be’. Then I saw the picture on the news and said, it’s him’.”

Pauline Tibbs, 48, said: “The police have been back and forward here all day. It’s a terrible shock. I’ve seen him walking in the street but never spoken to him.”

The anti-fascist campaign group HOPE not hate has said it fears the UK is entering a cycle of “tit-for-tat violence... where the extremes feed off one another, and terror attack propels terror attack.”

“No community entire, no ‘people’, are to blame for the actions of a few. Muslims are not ‘taking over’, nor are Islamophobic extremists. It can be lost in the miasma of blame and smear that, in fact, the vast majority of the country rejects all extremes,” the charity’s chief executive Nick Lowles said.

“Today it is vital we show solidarity to those under attack, but in the longer term this is not enough. As a society we need to be more proactive and find better ways to defeat those who want to destroy our lives.”