When: 20 June 2020
Where: Reading, Berkshire
Who: Khairi Saadallah
What: Bladed weapons attack against civilians
Deaths: 3
Injuries: 3
Type: Terrorist attack
Summary
A terrorist armed with a knife killed three people and wounded three others in Forbury Park in Reading, Berkshire, at around 19:00 on Saturday, 20 June. Police arrested the attacker five minutes after the first emergency services call. The victims were not known to the attacker and appear to have been targeted at random. Counter Terrorism Policing South East named the attacker as 25-year-old Libyan refugee Khairi Saadallah and said that it was treating the incident as a terrorism-related. Cordons were still in place around the park on Sunday, 21 June, mainly in the roads immediately surrounding the park.
According to security sources quoted in several media outlets, Saadallah came to the attention of MI5 in 2019 due to intelligence that he planned to travel to Syria for extremist purposes. However, he was not assessed to represent an immediate risk and therefore no further investigations were carried out. Nevertheless, Saadallah was reportedly recently released from prison, having been jailed for violent non-terrorist offences.
There was some speculation on social media channels that the attack was associated with a Black Lives Matter protest that had taken place in the park earlier that day but police denied this. Police have not yet announced a motive but according to several media outlets they are investigating whether Saadallah’s mental health was a contributing factor.
Assessment
This attack was the third confirmed terrorist attack in Great Britain since the start of the year, following bladed weapon attacks in HMP Whitemoor and Streatham in January and February respectively. In both instances, the attackers were known to police or the security services, with one of the two HMP Whitemoor attackers jailed for terror offences.
The attack in Reading further illustrates the difficulty faced by MI5 and police in effectively managing the over 20,000 former subjects of interest (SOIs); individuals who have come to the attention of authorities, but who are not actively monitored due resourcing constraints and other operational priorities. Given the string of recent attacks conducted by both former and current SOIs, how these individuals are managed by the police and intelligence services will likely be subject to further scrutiny. However, preventing effectively spontaneous low-complexity attacks without infringements on civil liberties will remain challenging.
Other recent attacks in the UK were conducted by individuals who wished to join extremist groups overseas but were prevented from doing so for one reason or another. While Saadullah reportedly aspired to join Daesh in Syria, it is presently unclear why he was dissuaded. However, there is a realistic possibility that his inability to fulfil this ambition was a factor in motivating his attack.
It is also likely that Saadallah delayed his attack plans due to COVID-19-related restrictions and waited for a revival in public activity and the attendant increase in the number of potential high-density targets. As restrictions are lifted, there is a realistic possibility of further attacks by terrorists who deferred their plans in response to the pandemic.
At present, the counter-terrorist community is particularly concerned about the displacement of people away from crowded places historically targeted by terrorists (pubs, nightclubs, markets etc.) to other types of crowded spaces such as parks. The latter present a challenge to secure, both due to their inherently open nature, and lack of clarity over who is responsible for their security. Thus, the attack in Reading may help steer forthcoming policy reviews relating to crowded places/crowded spaces and Martyn’s Law.
