Driver Ploughs Into Worshippers At Mosque After Shouting Islamophobic Abuse

Three people were injured outside the Al-Majlis Al-Hussaini mosque in Cricklewood, north London, in what a Muslim organisation claims was a “suspected premeditated Islamophobic attack”.

The car ran over worshippers outside a mosque after its occupants were asked to leave a private car park. The request degenerated into a row with the occupants of the car making Islamophobic comments, it is claimed.

A Met Police spokesman said officers were called at 12.25am on Wednesday to reports of a car colliding with pedestrians in Oxgate Lane in Brent. Met Police say they are investigating the 12.35am hit-and-run as a hate crime, but it is not being treated as terrorist related.

The car’s occupants – three men and a woman in their mid-twenties – were allegedly behaving anti-socially, drinking and using drugs in the car park when security asked them to leave.

It is claimed the group drove near the mosque and made Islamophobic remarks during a confrontation with a “large group of people”, and then crashed into pedestrians after the car was damaged by people outside the centre and it drove off “at speed”.

The car fled the scene and its occupants are still being hunted by police, who arrived to a chaotic scene in the street.

One of the victims, a man in his 50s, was being treated in hospital for a serious leg injury, while two men in their 20s suffered minor injuries.

The Hussaini Association, which had organised a lecture that was being held at the mosque, claims the car was driven by a white man and its occupants had shouted “anti-Islamic taunts” before the pedestrians were struck.

The driver was a Caucasian male and had 3 passengers in the car with him. The passengers were 2 males and a female and all of them were also of Caucasian origin.

They were heard shouting anti Islamic taunts at the crowd before they started their attack.