A British woman has admitted that she wanted to commit a suicide attack in Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, British media report today.

 

36-year-old Safiyya Amira Shaikh from Hayes, a suburb of London, contacted people who could make explosives and visited her target. The woman is a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) terror organisation.

Shaikh, who was born as Michelle Ramsden, previously saw a hotel as a possible target. Before her arrest in October, the woman built a relationship with two undercover agents, posing as Muslim extremists.

She sent their messages via the Telegram chat app. It stated, among other things, that she “wanted to kill a lot”. Shaikh also said he would prefer to strike at Christmas or Easter because there would be “more deaths”. She also forwarded images of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

In the Telegram group GreenB1rds of which Shaikh was probably one of the managers, under her pseudonym Al-Amriki, threats were also made against Dutch targets.

For example, last summer a photo-shopped image went around in which the St Vitus church in Hilversum went up in flames. “We came to slaughter you,” it said. The area surrounding the church was evacuated two weeks later when a suspicious suitcase was found. There was nothing wrong.

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