Bomb threat alert at the East London Mosque

The East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. Photo: East London Mosque.

The East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. Photo: East London Mosque.

The East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel was contacted by the Metropolitan Police on September 25 alerting them to a possible bomb threat.

The Met Police say an unknown individual made the threat to them.

At approximately 12.00pm, the bomb scare triggered an evacuation throughout the complex with hundreds of service users, school children and worshippers having to leave the buildings.

Local businesses adjoined to the London Muslim Centre were also evacuated.

The buildings were declared safe an hour later, just before the midday prayers at 1:30pm.

The police have explained that according to their intelligence, it was a ‘low-level’ threat and that they would rather check that the buildings were safe and no suspicious packages were left inside the Mosque and Centre.

Dilowar Khan, Executive Director of the mosque, said to ELL: “This threat to our institution comes after numerous Mosque and Islamic Centres have been attacked across the country, and we have to take it very seriously.

“It is the likes of a handful of individuals in the right-wing media, who have exacerbated the problem of Islamophobia. We find our diverse communities under threat from groups such as the English Defence League, who seek to divide and plant hatred in our society.

“We ask our congregation to remain vigilant against these threats and to report any suspicious activity to the relevant authority.”

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