The Tory MP is said to have been attacked by a 25-year-old.
(Photo: imago images / ZUMA Press)
London Conservative British MP David Amess was killed in a knife attack on Friday. According to media reports, the 69-year-old was attacked at a routine meeting with citizens in his constituency in Leigh-on-Sea, east of London.
The police later confirmed the victim’s death, but did not reveal his name. A 25-year-old was arrested and a knife was seized. The man is suspected of murder, it was said.
Essex police said they were called shortly after noon about a knife attack. There is no search for other people. Initially, nothing was known about a possible motive of the alleged perpetrator.
Aerial photos showed several ambulances and the air ambulance next to the church where the meeting with the citizens took place. Police announced the death of the victim two hours after the attack. Amess represented the constituency of Southend West with Leigh-on-Sea in Parliament since 1997.
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Politicians from all political camps expressed their horror. Labor leader Keir Starmer tweeted that the news of the attack was appalling. He thinks of the MP, his family and his co-workers. Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that his thoughts and prayers were with Sir David Amess and his family.
There have already been attacks on British parliamentarians in the past: in 2016, British Labor MP Jo Cox was killed with knife wounds and gunshots in her constituency in northern England. A right-wing extremist was convicted for the act. Cox’s widower, Brendan Cox, tweeted after the attack on Amess that an attack “on our elected officials is an attack on democracy itself. There is no excuse, no justification.”
Labor MP Stephen Timms was injured with a knife by a student in 2010. She had been radicalized by online sermons by an al-Qaeda-related preacher. In 2000, Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones and his adviser Andrew Pennington were attacked by a man with a sword. Pennington was killed, Jones injured.
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