Streatham attack: Sudesh Amman not treated for 80 minutes

Medics had no "reasonable opportunity" to save a terrorist who was shot during a stabbing spree, an inquest has heard.

Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot as he ran towards undercover officers after stabbing two people on Streatham High Road, south London, on 2 February 2020.

Amman, who was carrying a knife, was shot by police three or four times, a forensic pathologist told his inquest.

Amman, who was seemingly wearing a suicide belt, was not treated by medics for about 80 minutes, the jury heard.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The suicide belt turned out to be fake.

Jurors at the Royal Courts of Justice heard the formal cause of Amman's death was shock and haemorrhage due to gunshot wounds to the neck and abdomen.

Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl, who carried out the post-mortem examination on Amman, said paramedics would have needed to reach him "within just a few minutes" in order to save his life.

Sudesh Amman was jailed for 40 months in 2018 for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism

Dr Fegan-Earl said: "The key issue here is time. Time is the enemy of survival in these issues.

"There would be nothing that they could reasonably do to stem the bleed from the neck."

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On Wednesday, the inquest heard that a nine-man surveillance team had been following Amman after his release from prison, 10 days before the stabbings.

One officer told the inquest how he feared for his life when he witnessed Amman plunge a knife into the upper back of a woman. She was not seriously injured, although the other person Amman stabbed thought he was about to die, the jury has heard.

Officer BX75, whose identity is being protected, said he "locked eyes" with Amman before shooting him in the chest. The 20-year-old was then also shot by another officer.

Amman discarded the packaging of the knife he had grabbed inside the shop

Speaking on Friday, Supt Ross McKibbin, of the Met's Counter Terrorism Unit, praised the "utmost bravery" shown by the officers.

He told the inquest the officers had gone inside the potential blast radius of an improvised suicide belt "to protect members of the public".

"Any potential improvised explosive device is treated as if it is real until it is known otherwise," he said.

"We have to recognise the bravery of those officers doing that."

Amman was placed in a bail hostel in Streatham after his release from prison

The inquest previously heard there had been concerns about Amman's imminent release from HMP Belmarsh on 23 January 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for preparing and engaging in acts of terrorism.

However, the request was turned down by the governor because the offence Amman was jailed for did not justify him serving further time in prison.

The inquest continues.