"This is the heartland of Algerian people in London and it ... they have to search the mosque, but they could have brought the people out first and then been taken inside themselves," he said.

The mosque in south-west London is thought to be the largest in Britain with a capacity for 13,000 worshippers. It was completed in 2003 at a cost of £15m, entirely from donations of Ahmadi Muslims.

The mosque in Morden, south London, can hold up to 10,000 worshippers and was built at a cost of £15 million by Britain's Ahmadi Muslims who opened London's first mosque nearly 80 years ago.

Police have rushed to the scene after a stabbing outside a mosque in London. A man in his 30s has been taken to hospital after the attack outside the Greenwich Islamic Centre in Plumstead Road at ...