The BBC has been accused of omitting to report that a trio of knife attackers allegedly shouted Quranic verses and “this is for Allah” as they slashed the arm of a nursery school worker.
The incident occurred in Wanstead, North East London, on Thursday morning.
A BBC spokesman told Breitbart London: “We reported this story accurately adding new information when we could, including reporting claims of what was being shouted.”
Meanwhile, both the East London and West Essex Guardian and Ilford Recorder promptly reported that the nursery’s manager, Karrien Stevens, claimed the attackers “were shouting parts of the Quran saying things like ‘Allah will get you’.”
The BBC, however, initially reported no details about the attackers, despite these claims being available on the local websites mentioned above for more than an hour.
The BBC’s reporting of the incident at 13:22 pm Thursday.
Later in the afternoon, they added the line: “She was slashed by three Asian women dressed in black.” By Thursday morning, the line “and shouted out ‘something to do with Allah and the Quran’” had been added to the copy.
A clip of the BBC’s television report of the incident went viral on Wednesday night. A section of an interview with Mrs. Stevens had clearly been clipped out, with many online speculating the claims of Quranic verse being shouted during the attack had been removed.
The BBC confirmed to Breitbart London the clip shared on social was genuine and the edit shown on television.
The national broadcaster insisted the clip had to be edited to fit into a short news report, pointing out that radio and online coverage included longer comments and more specific details about the suspects.
Twitter users were unconvinced. “Totally disgraceful from the @BBCNews… why do the beeb want to hide the truth?” asked Ruislip John.
“They cut out the lady describing the attackers saying ‘this is for Allah’. It’s reported on RELIABLE media!” blasted Jess Lowe.
“No mention of ‘Allah Allah’… This has been somewhat suppressed on the media. I wonder why?” added Bob Vaughan, who claimed his daughter attends the nursery.
User Wanstead Weather saw things differently, however, claiming it is wrong for the media to “stir up fear” and “jump on it as a hate crime”.
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