London

    Bomb threat letters received by mosques in east London are being investigated by counter-terror police. Handwritten notes have been received by the Forest Gate mosque, as well as the Coventry Cross mosque in Bromley-by-Bow and Shacklewell Lane mosque in Dalston. Pictures of the letters, which have been posted online by campaign group Documenting Opperssion Against Muslims (DOAM), show similar handwriting and suggest they have been written by the same person. Those sent to the Coventry Cross and Shacklewell Lane mosques state that the writer will be visiting or coming to your mosque, while the Forest Gate letter is more explicit, saying an explosive device would be left there. A spokeswoman for the north east counter terrorism unit confirmed that the police received a numbe...

I am aware of the increased levels of fear within our community in relation to reporting of recent acid based crimes in Tower Hamlets and across London.. Police are investigating crimes that have occurred recently across East London involving the use of corrosive substances during the commission of the offence. At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that these incidents are linked. One of the offences, which took place in Newham on 21 June, is being treated as a hate crime and strenuous efforts continue to locate and arrest the suspect. This is only the second report in the last 12 months within the whole of London of such an incident having a hate crime link. In 2016 there were 455 offences recorded where a corrosive/acid substance was used across London, this year to date there have ...

    A man who deliberately rammed his Range Rover into a crowd celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid in east London has been jailed for 12 years. Akikul Islam, 25, was today handed the lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm in May. Two men were seriously injured in the attack on July 7 last year. Islam had arrived in Frimley Way, Mile End, in the company of another car just before 1am as Muslims celebrated the end of Ramadan. CCTV footage showed three men get out of the two cars and begin arguing with a group of around ten males armed with baseball bats and bottles. Islam remained in his car as a fight escalated around him. However, as the other car sped off he turned around and drove directly at three of the men, running over a 24-year...

    Prime Minister Theresa May today refused to bend to calls to lift the cap on public sector pay as she warned that any reversal of her government's austerity agenda would risk Britain turning into Greece. Her cabinet has this week been embroiled in a public argument about whether the freeze to public sector pay rises should be axed following the Conservative Party's failure to win a majority in last months' election. Senior ministers including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon have publicly urged May to consider scrapping the cap, while Chancellor Philip Hammond has taken the opposing view, saying the government must hold its nerve on austerity. Asked about the cap, May claimed that Britain would end up in an economic crisis similar to tha...

    A total of 87 discoveries of human remains have been made at Grenfell Tower, police have revealed. The force said on Wednesday its investigators had made 87 recoveries, but was quick to stress this did not mean they had found 87 people due to the catastrophic damage inside the block. Commander Stuart Cundy said: Until formal identification has been completed to the Coroner's satisfaction I cannot say how many people have now been recovered. Grenfell inquiry head backed by Government Some 250 specialists are combing through the wrecked tower by hand, he added. They will sort through more than 15 tonnes of debris per floor, Mr Cundy said. He added: This will take us many months, but we will search each and every flat. We will use all the information we have, especially what ...

    The sister of the London Bridge terror mastermind is believed to have been sacked from Heathrow amid questions about staff vetting at the airport. Britain’s biggest airport carried out an investigation with security services into the sister of Khuram Butt, who massacred revellers in the capital last month. Butt, 27, was known to M15 as a key figure in extremist group al-Muhajiroun and appeared in the Channel 4 documentary The Jihadis Next Door. His older sister, Haleema Butt, 28, got a job working security at Heathrow two months before the attack . A source told the Mirror the mother-of-two had her employment terminated as a result of the probe. She declined to comment when approached at home in Harrow, north- west London, but added: “You should take it up with Heathrow . ...

    The rights of private renters in Tower Hamlets are being promoted with the launch of the Tower Hamlets Private Renters' Charter on Thursday June 29. The key message within the Charter is that every private renter has the right to live in a safe and secure home, and to be treated fairly by their landlord or agent. The Charter was officially launched by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, and Statutory Deputy Mayor Cllr Sirajul Islam, who is Tower Hamlets Cabinet Member for Housing. The Charter is backed by a broad range of organisations, who will also provide specialist assistance and guidance for renters. For the first time in generations the majority of homes in Tower Hamlets (40 per cent) are now rented from private landlords, compared with 36 per cent social rented ...

    The government has defended the appointment of a retired appeal court judge to lead the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire and hinted that his remit could be widened, after he faced calls to resign from two Labour MPs. Five days after the appointment of Sir Martin Moore-Bick as head of the inquiry, the MP for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad, and the new shadow fire minister, Chris Williamson, called for him to resign, citing scepticism about him from survivors and frustration at the apparently narrow remit of the inquiry. The justice secretary and lord chancellor, David Lidington, defended Moore-Bick’s appointment and insisted he would consult residents before agreeing the scope of the inquiry. All the latest news, views and opinion on the Grenfell tragedy After meeting resid...

    A terrified teenager plunged to her death from a fourth floor window in front of her distraught family as she lost her grip while trying to escape a fire raging in her bedroom. Meilan Duong has been named as the youngster with a a heart of gold who died in the blaze in east London yesterday morning - just a fortnight before her 18th birthday. Horrified onlookers said the young girl, wearing just her underwear, was clinging on outside her window screaming for help as the inferno raged inside. One witness claimed she had tried to climb out using a blanket or rope on to the balcony on the floor below, but was forced to let go after her hair and the rope caught fire. Next door neighbour Shopba Begum, 36, described the teen she believed was attending sixth form college as a lov...