Security Tightened At Some NYC Sites After Soldier's Brutal Murder In London
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The NYPD increased security at the British Consulate and other sites in New York on Wednesday, following an attack in London that left a soldier hacked to death.
"Based not on information that such facilities have been targeted in New York City but in an abundance of caution, the NYPD has increased coverage of the British consulate, military recruiting stations, and other locations in the city," police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement.
Two British officials said Wednesday evening the attacks may have been motivated by radical Islam, and they said they were not just basing that on the shocking video.
"There are strong indications that this is a terrorist incident," Prime Minister David Cameron said.
The soldier was hacked to death in a brutal, grisly fashion that horrified onlookers near the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich Common in southeast London, CBS 2's Dick Brennan reported.
Witnesses said he and another man drove a car into a British soldier, then got out and attacked, all while yelling, "God is great" in Arabic.
"I saw a man lying motionless on the ground next to a car that had been in the collision," Lauren Collens said.
Footage caught by a passerby showed a man with bloody hands holding a meat cleaver and a knife as he spoke to the camera, CBS News reported.
"We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth. We apologize that women had to see this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don't care about you," he said.
He gave no indication what that land was.
Afterward, the man walks back toward the body of the victim, CBS News reported. The body is surrounded by three passersby trying to help the victim, as the alleged attacker speaks to another man, also possibly involved in the incident.
Soon after, both men are seen lying on the ground, having been shot by police who responded to the scene.
The men who were shot by police were taken to separate London hospitals, Cmdr. Simon Letchford said. One of the men was in serious condition, according to London Ambulance Service.
The barracks — which house a number of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and independent companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards — were the site of shooting events during the 2012 London Olympics.
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