British prison stabbing was terror attack

Jailed terrorist identified as suspect in attack on prison officer at top-security jail

Brusthom Ziamani was a follower of Al Muhajiroun, once led by preacher Anjem Choudary (pictured). Reuters

British police are treating the stabbing of a prison officer by two inmates wearing fake suicide belts at a top-security jail as a terrorist attack.

Brusthom Ziamani, 24, who was found guilty in 2015 of a plot to behead a British soldier, was identified by the BBC as one of the alleged attackers. The other was said to be a Muslim convert jailed for a violent offence.

The two men are believed to have used improvised weapons to attack on a prison officer, who suffered head and neck injuries.

Four other staff who tackled the knifemen were also injured. All five have now been released from hospital. Both of the men behind the attack remain in prison and no arrests have been made, police said.

The Metropolitan Police’s most senior counter-terrorism officer “has now confirmed the matter is being treated as a terrorist attack and the investigation continues at pace,” according to a force statement.

It said there was nothing to suggest any further continuing threat from inside or outside of Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire, some 150 kilometres north of London.

Ziamani was jailed for 22 years for plotting to behead a soldier after he was inspired by two extremists who ran down soldier Lee Rigby in a car before hacking him to death close to his barracks in southeast London.

Ziamani was arrested in east London carrying a knife and a hammer after telling his girlfriend earlier that day he intended to attack and kill soldiers.

He was connected to members of Al Muhajiroun, the extremist group founded by Syrian extremist Omar Bakri Muhammed, which helped to radicalise dozens of disaffected young Britons with some travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight under ISIS.