The British government has said it will stop the automatic early release of those convicted of terrorism offences on Monday after a man who was recently released from jail wounded three people in a knife attack in London.
Sudesh Amman, 20, was freed from prison around a week ago, having served half of his three-year sentence for terrorism offences.
Amman was shot dead on Sunday by police after launching a frenzied knife attack on people on a busy street in the southern district of Streatham.
None of the victims are in a life-threatening condition.
"We're bringing forward legislation to stop the system of automatic early release but the difficulty is ... how to apply that retrospectively to the cohort of people who currently qualify," UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech in London.
"We do think it's time to take action to ensure that people - irrespective of the law we're bringing in - people in the current stream do not qualify automatically for early release."
The attack comes three months after a man stabbed two people to death during an attack near London Bridge before being shot dead by police. The knifeman had also served jail time for terrorism offences.
Mr Johnson said since the attack, the government had "moved quickly to introduce a package of measures to strengthen every element of our response to terrorism – including longer prison sentences and more money for the police”.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the event was "clearly foreseeable" and that he was angry at the lack of progress by the government in making changes that had been promised after the London Bridge attack.
“One of the questions I’ve got for the government is what are we doing about those 70-odd people who have been released from prison?”
Mr Khan said there were currently more than 200 people jailed for terrorism offences in the UK.
Amman, the Streatham attacker, was jailed in 2018 for possession of terrorist documents and dissemination of terrorist publications.
He was under surveillance at the time of Sunday’s attack, which unfolded on Streatham High Road at around 2pm local time, when people were out shopping.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP for Streatham, said the fact that the attack had happened outside of central London worried people.
"You expect these things to happen in central London for obvious reasons," Ms Ribeiro-Addy told Sky News.
"And if they start to happen outside, then people start to question if they’re safe on their own high street."
