Two men attacked another man and killed him in a machete attack near a military barracks in southeast London, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The British government is the treating the incident as terrorism. The two men, who first gloated about the attack, were shot by officers in a busy London street. The man killed is believed to be a British solider.
"It has been confirmed to me that a man has been brutally murdered," British Home Secretary Theresa May said. "Two other men were shot by armed police and they are currently receiving treatment for their injuries."
One witness, identified only as James said two men attack another man, who was about 20 wearing a T-shirt of military charity Help for Heroes.
"These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there," he said to a radio station.
James said after the "horrendous" attack, the two men, who were also in their 20s, waiving knives and a gun, asking people to take pictures of them, "as if they wanted to be on TV or something."
Thomas, a witness who contacted the BBC, said: "I got there minutes after it happened because you could hear gunshots from Woolwich High Street.
"Basically two men carried out an axe attack on a young army cadet walking along the street, by the looks of things the police responded and then shot them in front of the public, at the same time I couldn't really tell if the cadet was fatally or not hurt as police were crowded around him."
Some reports suggested his attackers tried to behead him while shouting praise for Allah, Reuters reported.
Britain's government called for meetings of it an emergency security committee. A security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was too soon to say whether the attack was terror related, however.
A teacher at a local school told the BBC he saw a body on the road and afterward heard gunshots.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said that the attack may have been filmed, and footage may exist.
