A HISTORY OF RECENT TERROR ATTACKS TO OCCUR IN BRITAIN
MARCH 22, 2017
An attacker stabbed a police officer at Britain's Parliament before being shot by police, while a vehicle ran over pedestrians on nearby Westminster Bridge at around the same time. One woman was killed, others injured.
DECEMBER 5, 2015
An Islamic State-inspired taxi driver tried to behead a passenger in the east London Underground station of Leytonstone. Somali-born Muhiddin Mire was sent to a high-security mental hospital to serve a life sentence. The judge ruled that Mire had been motivated by events in Syria. The incident came days after Parliament approved British airstrikes on Islamic State group targets in Syria.
MAY 22, 2013
Two British-born, al-Qaeda-inspired extremists stabbed off-duty soldier Lee Rigby to death on a busy south London street. The men ran Rigby down with their vehicle and then used a cleaver to hack him to death. Images of attacker Michael Adebolajo holding a butcher knife and cleaver with bloodied hands in the moments after killing shocked people around the world and sparked fears of Islamist extremism in Britain. Adebolajo and his accomplice were sentenced to life in prison.
JULY 7, 2005
In the worst peacetime attack on Britain this century, four Al-Qaeda-inspired bombers blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus in London, killing 52. Three of the bombers were British-born, all of Pakistani descent; the other emigrated from Jamaica.
