Man waving shoehorn outside London Central Mosque tasered and arrested

Police have tasered a man outside a mosque in London after reports people were being attacked near the religious building. The incident occurred outside the London Central Mosque in Regent's Park in the early hours of Wednesday (21 June) morning.

The Metropolitan Police said authorities found "a man waving an item around". The item was later discovered to be a shoehorn taken from the mosque.

No injuries were reported and the man was tasered and arrested. He is being held on suspicion of affray. Investigations are ongoing. The police said they are not treating the incident as terrorism.

The incident occurred just days after a man rammed a van into pedestrians outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, east London, injuring 11. A man died at the scene, but police are investigating if the death is linked to the van attack.

The victims were Muslim worshippers who had gone to the mosque to pray after Iftar, the breaking of the dawn-to-dusk fast observed during the month of Ramadan.

The 47-year-old suspect, Darren Osborne, was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder. He is now in police custody.

In the aftermath of the Finsbury Park mosque attack, members of the Muslim community told IBTimes UK they live in fear "every day" due to what they see as a rise in Islamophobia in London.

The Muslim Council of Britain said the van "intentionally" hit worshippers and labelled the attack at Finsbury Park as a "violent manifestation of Islamophobia".

In the aftermath of the Finsbury Park attack, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, urged victims of hate crime to report the incident to the police.

"The good news is [that] after the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack we didn't see a big spike in hate crime [or] Islamophobic crime ... The bad news is we have seen a big spike after London Bridge," Khan said.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the Metropolitan Police declared the Finsbury Park attack a "terrorist incident" within eight minutes and that extra police resources had been deployed to reassure communities.