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Finsbury Park terror suspect's mum responds to mosque attack

The family of the Finsbury Park terror attack suspect have described the incident in north London as “sheer madness” and said they are “devastated for the families”.

Darren Osborne, a 47-year-old father-of-four, was arrested after a van hit worshippers near a north London mosque in the early hours of Monday morning.

In a statement, the family said: “We are massively shocked; it’s unbelievable, it still hasn’t really sunk in.

“We are devastated for the families, our hearts go out to the people who have been injured.”

They added: “Its madness. It is obviously sheer madness.”

In a separate telephone interview, his mother said she “screamed” when she saw his image on the television.

Police patrol the scene after the Finsbury Park attack (PA Images)
Police patrol the scene after the Finsbury Park attack (PA Images)

Describing it as “every mother’s worst nightmare”, she told The Sun: “My son is no terrorist — he’s just a man with problems and I don’t know how to cope with all this.

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“He’s never spoken to me about terror attacks or talked about ‘bloody Muslims’ — never in a million years and that’s the truth.

“As a mum my heart goes out to everyone in Finsbury Park.”

Asked by ITV News what she thought when she found her son was in custody, she said: “Oh God… you just can’t imagine.”

She added: “I just can’t talk about it, I just don’t know”.

Osborne’s sister said she is “very sorry for what’s happened.”

Meanwhile, the imam who protected the man suspected of carrying out the attack near the Finsbury Park mosque said he “did his bit”.

Mohammed Mahmoud had just finished leading prayers when a panicked worshipper rushed inside the mosque in north London.

He told reporters: “It wasn’t me alone, there were a group of brothers.

“They were calm and collected and managed to calm people down and to extinguish any flames of anger or mob rule that would have taken charge had this group of mature brothers not stepped in.”