A woman who challenged knife-wielding assailants suspected of hacking to death a British soldier in London on Wednesday said she intervened because "it was better having them (the weapons) aimed on one person".
Police officers cordon off a road in Woolwich, London, on May 22, 2013, following an attack on a British soldier near a barracks. A woman who challenged knife-wielding assailants suspected of hacking to death a British soldier in London on Wednesday said she intervened because "it was better having them (the weapons) aimed on one person".
Cub scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, explained in Thursday's Daily Telegraph that one of the men told her they wanted "to start a war in London tonight" when she asked them why they had carried out the attack.
The mother-of-two ran from a passing bus after seeing the victim lying in the road and tried to take his pulse.
It was only then that she noticed the arsenal of weapons, including knives and a revolver.
"He was not high, he was not on drugs, he was not an alcoholic or drunk, he was just distressed, upset," she said of the first attacker she talked to, the paper reported.
"I said 'right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?' and he said 'I would like to stay and fight'."
She later approached the second suspect and asked for him to hand over his weapons.
"I thought it was better having them aimed on one person like me rather than everybody there, children were starting to leave school as well," she told the Telegraph.
Britain's top policeman confirmed two men had been arrested following the "shocking and horrific" attack.
"We have launched a murder investigation, being led by the Counter Terrorism Command," explained Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe
"Two men have been arrested in connection with that murder."