A van plowed into a group of worshippers leaving a north London mosque early Monday, leaving one person dead and at least 10 others injured in what British Prime Minister Theresa May called a terrorist attack.

A 47-year-old man who was driving the van was arrested by police on suspicion of attempted murder. The man who died at the scene was receiving first aid at the time and it was not clear if he died as a result of the attack or something else, according to the Associated Press.


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The attack near Finsbury Park Mosque followed a series of terrorist attacks in Britain believed to be linked to the Islamic State militant group, including an explosion at a crowded concert hall in Manchester last month.

May condemned the fatal van crash as a terrorist attack that targeted British Muslims and said the government will act to stamp out extremist and hateful ideology.

"All of these are attacks on our shared values of freedom, tolerance and respect," London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said in a statement that there are many faiths and nationalities in the capital and "an attack on one community is an attack on all of us."

An eyewitness told the BBC that the suspect in the latest case said, "I want to kill Muslims."

A local Muslim Council said the driver is suspected of deliberately hitting worshippers as there were a number of people near the mosque in the middle of the night after the break of the Ramadan fast.

The police have blocked a nearby subway station while conducting an investigation.

According to Tell MAMA, an independent organization which tracks anti-Muslim hatred, the number of reports of verbal abuse and harassment has been rapidly rising recently.

In the Manchester attack last month, 22 people were killed. Earlier this month, attackers struck a crowd of pedestrians with a van on London Bridge in central London before going on a stabbing rampage, killing eight people.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks.