An American man was among three people killed in a stabbing incident in the British town of Reading on Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Britain confirmed Monday, without naming the individual.
Ambassador Woody Johnson tweeted that he offered his “deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the attack on June 20”, adding that one of the victims was an American citizen.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected,” Johnson wrote. “We condemn the attack absolutely and have offered our assistance to British law enforcement.”
British police said a 25-year-old local man was arrested at the scene and was believed to be the lone attacker and the incident is being treated as a terrorism-related, now under investigating by the counter-terrorism police.
Three other people were seriously wounded in the stabbing attack in Forbury Gardens park in Reading, a town with a population of 200,000 people, located about 65 kilometers west of London.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has named the American killed as Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who had moved to Britain about 15 years ago.
The paper has quoted his father, Robert Ritchie, as saying that his son initially worked for a London law firm and in the past 10 years worked for a Dutch pharmaceutical company with its British headquarters in Reading.
