Woolwich Residents Say Tensions Running High After Attack
There was heavy police presence patrolling the streets of Woolwich in southeast London on Thursday (May 23) to reassure the shocked community after a soldier was hacked to death in broad daylight.
Police sought to allay racial and ethnic tensions following the Wednesday (May 22) attack, where two men knifed to death serving soldier Lee Rigby.
The two men are under armed guard in hospital. One of the men has been named as Michael Olumide Adebolajo.
On the streets of Woolwich, locals fear that the incident will spark more violence and suspicion amongst different communities.
Nigerian Maria Okolie has lived in Woolwich for the last ten years, she fears the actions of the two Nigerian men accused of the attack tar the whole community.
"We got harboured by the English people and they don't deserve this, they don't it. So what those boys did is way way beyond anything you could explain," she said.
Laura Whisker said her colleagues were afraid to go to work: "It's quite tense, very tense, you can see people sort of keeping an eye on each other."
Outside the Woolwich army barracks a mound of flowers left in tribute to the murdered soldier grew. Notes contained messages paying tribute to an "innocent soldier" and condemning the "animals" who took away a "hero".
British police arrested two more people on Thursday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of the killing.
The two suspected killers had been known to security services before the attack, security sources said. Another man and a woman, both aged 29, were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Presented by Adam Justice
READ:
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/woolwich-soldier-muslims-mi5-terrorist-machete-david-470584
