Indian-origin Shopkeeper Tried to Stop London Terrorist with Knife

London, Feb 3 (PTI) An Indian-origin shopkeeper tried to stop the convicted terrorist from stealing the knife which he used for a stabbing frenzy on a busy high street in south London, before being shot dead by armed police officers during Sunday's terror attack.

Jagmon Singh was in the shop where convicted terrorist Sudesh Amman stormed in to steal a knife before using it to stab a woman in the back, who has since been discharged from hospital.

The 20-year-old Sri Lankan origin Islamic State (ISIS) inspired Londoner went on to attack another man, who suffered life-threatening injuries and remains in hospital but has been declared out of danger.

Jagmon Singh's brother revealed on Monday how his brother tried to grab the knife out of Amman's grip, believing him to be a shoplifter, before he fled out of the store on Streatham High Road on Sunday.

"My brother recognised him because he had come in the week before and didn't buy anything," Kiranjeet Singh told the ‘Evening Standard' newspaper.

"My brother said he grabbed a ceramic 10-inch kitchen knife that was hanging by the till. He walked in, took the knife, saw nobody was looking and ran out. He removed the packaging then stabbed the woman in the back. It was completely random then he started running," said the 38-year-old, who owns the 'low price store' on the street.

Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers have been carrying out searches on Monday in the bail hostel in south London where Amman had been lodged after he was released half-way through a three-year terrorism prison sentence under parole conditions.

Amman's mother Haleema Faraz Khan spoke about her last visit with her son at the hostel last week as she described him as a "polite and lovely boy" who had been "brainwashed" by material he saw online.

She told Sky News in an interview that her son had been further radicalised by his time in the high security Belmarsh prison in south-east London.

Khan, whose family is originally from Sri Lanka but is now based in Bedfordshire in the east of England, said when she first heard an attack had taken place, she "had a feeling" her son was responsible because it was in south London.

"I saw it on the TV, that's when I knew it was him. His name was there. That was the first time I heard. He didn't answer his phone, I tried to ring him [after the attack]," she told Sky News.

Amman had been under surveillance since his release following his sentence for terrorism offences in December 2018.

He had pleaded guilty to the possession and dissemination of terrorist material and it emerged in court that he had shared ISIS-related beheading material on social media.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reiterated that the government will be looking into imposing tougher custodial sentences on dangerous and convicted terrorist suspects.

"We are bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release. The difficulty is how to apply retrospectively to the cohort of people who currently qualify," he said, during a speech in London on Monday.

"It is time to take action to ensure, irrespective of the law we are bringing in, people in the current stream don't qualify automatically for early release," he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)