Somali immigrant detained after car plows into London shoppers (VIDEOS)

Five people suffered non-life-threatening injuries when a car struck shoppers in Ealing Broadway on Saturday. The Metropolitan Police said the driver fled the scene but was apprehended in nearby Grange Park shortly afterward.

“The driver, a 34-year-old Somalia-born British man, was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and attempted murder,” a police spokesperson said.

“While investigators are keeping an open mind as to any potential motive, the incident is not being treated as terrorism,” police said.

The incident took place amid an intense debate over immigration levels and violent crime involving migrants.

Earlier this month, a Sudanese asylum seeker was charged with attacking a man with a knife on a street in Belfast. The assault, which was caught on camera, sparked riots in the Northern Irish capital. Several days later, a British man of Pakistani descent allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old girl in Brierfield.

Anti-racism demonstrations were subsequently held by left-wing groups across the UK. In Glasgow, Scotland, these activists clashed with counter-protesters.

Last week, an assailant injured five people on the streets of Edinburgh in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as anti-Muslim attacks. The suspect reportedly said while being arrested that he was “protecting the country” from Muslims.

Reports of the incident on social media were commonly met with retorts of “I don’t think he did, mate,” reflecting the last words British officers said to Henry Nowak while arresting him for racist insults after he informed them that he’d been stabbed by the accuser, Vickrum Digwa. 

The rampage came against the backdrop of a report released by Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe detailing how predominantly Pakistani men had raped and abused large numbers of mostly white British girls across nearly half of the UK’s municipalities over several decades.