A 34-year-old Somalia-born British man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after driving into pedestrians in a busy shopping district in west London, on 27 June, injuring five people.
Police were called to Ealing Broadway at 2:29pm on Saturday after the vehicle struck pedestrians near Marks & Spencer before leaving the scene. Two victims were treated by paramedics, while three were taken to hospital, including one transferred to a major trauma centre. None is believed to have suffered life-threatening or life-changing injuries.
The car was stopped shortly afterwards in nearby Grange Park, where the driver was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and dangerous driving. Police have not released his name or disclosed a possible motive.
Social media reports described the suspect as a ‘Somali migrant’, although the Metropolitan Police identified him only as a ‘Somalia-born British citizen’. His immigration history and status have not been made public.
Counter Terrorism Policing London assisted with the initial inquiries because of the nature of the incident. The Metropolitan Police nevertheless said that, while investigators were ‘keeping an open mind as to any potential motive’, the case was not currently being treated as terrorism.
The announcement provoked immediate outrage because the incident clearly resembled a deliberate vehicle-ramming attack: a car struck multiple pedestrians, the driver fled, and police made an attempted murder arrest. Many questioned how terrorism could be publicly ruled out before a motive had been established or disclosed. Others asked whether the response would have been the same had a white British suspect driven into a group of Muslims, pointing to what they described as double standards in the conduct of the British authorities.
The controversy has subsequently renewed accusations of ‘two-tier policing’—the concept that police, prosecutors, and courts apply different standards according to ethnicity, religion, or political background, prioritizing Muslims and other minority groups over white British victims. While the government and police leaders reject the allegation, the handling of several recent cases has made the concern increasingly difficult to dismiss.
The most prominent example is the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton. His killer, 23-year-old Sikh Vickrum Digwa, falsely told police that Nowak had racially abused him. Officers then handcuffed the fatally wounded teenager while initially leaving Digwa unrestrained. Nowak died at the scene.
Body-camera footage showed officers treating Nowak arrogantly and dismissively as he repeatedly said, ‘I’ve been stabbed’ and ‘I can’t breathe’. One officer replied: ‘I don’t think you have, mate’, while police took approximately eight minutes to discover his wound. The footage triggered nationwide anger and large-scale protests in Southampton, one of which descended into clashes with riot police.
‘At the time of writing, no senior Labour government figures had responded publicly to the London vehicle-ramming attack’
The current vehicle-ramming attack came just days after a Scottish man injured five men, including Muslims, in Edinburgh on 19 June. Police Scotland immediately placed Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland in charge, describing the incident as being motivated by ‘racism’ and ‘anti-Muslim hatred’. The suspect, Lewis Hawkes, 36, was subsequently charged with five counts of attempted murder and other offences, all aggravated by an alleged terrorist connection.
At the time of writing, no senior Labour government figures had responded publicly to the London vehicle-ramming attack, further fuelling accusations of double standards compared with how vocally they condemned the Edinburgh attack. On that occasion, both outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood responded rapidly, describing the suspect as motivated by ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ and promising that he would face the ‘full force of the law’. Starmer took half a month to address the murder of Henry Nowak after the circumstances of the case first came to light.
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