'Bye bye, I love you mummy': Mother of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman's tells inquest of his final words to her on phone... minutes before he carried out knife rampage that injured two people

The mother of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman has revealed his final words to her on the phone minutes before he carried out a knife rampage that injured two people.

Haleema Khan has described instantly 'knowing' her 20-year-old son was responsible when she heard about the south London attack after he ended their conversation with: 'Bye bye, I love you mummy.'

Amman stole a kitchen knife from a shop and stabbed two unwitting members of the public on a Sunday afternoon in Streatham.

He was shot dead by armed police within 62 seconds of launching his attack in which both his victims survived.

Ms Khan told the inquest into Amman's death how she had 'no idea' her son was going to strike. 

The mother of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman has revealed his final words to her on the phone minutes before he carried out a knife rampage that injured two people 

Speaking through a Tamil interpreter, Ms Khan said she was on the phone to her husband on February 2 when an alert came through from a news website about the Streatham incident.

'I was frightened,' she said. 'Then I noticed the jacket and the shoes on the news, that was given from me to him.'

In her witness statement, she said: 'I saw that someone was shot dead in Streatham at 2pm.

'I knew it was Sudesh. I saw on a website that the dead man was wearing (his brother's) jacket and his shoes.

'I then called probation as I wanted to tell them the jacket and shoes were Sudesh's.

'I called my husband and told him. We were both then calling Sudesh for a long time.'

Pictured: CCTV footage of Sudesh Amman running along Streatham High Road as he stabbed passers by

Amman stabbed and injured two passersby, while wearing a fake suicide vest, before he was shot and killed by armed police just a minute later

She told Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, she then started to cry.

'I was shocked,' she said. 'I kept crying. All my children were running to me and asking why I was crying.'

Mr Hough said: 'Was there any explanation for what he did and what motivated him?'

Ms Khan replied: 'No, I didn't think he was going to do these things and I had no idea.'

Ms Khan told police she spoke to her son shortly after 1.30pm on the day of the attack, when he said he was on his way to buy some food.

The inquest had already heard that Amman left his probation hostel at 1.22pm on his way to Streatham High Road where he would carry out his attack while wearing a fake suicide device.

Recalling the conversation, she told police: 'Sudesh said he loved me. He said, "Bye bye, I love you mummy."

'He said this before. That was the last time I spoke to Sudesh.'

Timeline: Streatham 2020 terror attack 

January 23, 2020

Sudesh Amman is automatically released from prison.

January 24

Amman, who is originally from Coventry, is under day-time surveillance by plain clothes officers.

January 29

A decision is made to allow those surveillance officers to carry firearms.

January 30

Amman's covert surveillance is relaxed slightly, meaning there would be no coverage between 6am and 10am.

January 31

Amman is seen looking at knives in a shop and buying items that could be used to create a hoax suicide belt. These items include a roll of tape, aluminium foil and four bottles of Irn Bru soft drink. It is then decided to put Amman under 24-hour surveillance.

February 1

Amman is placed on 'round-the-clock' - i.e. 24-hour - surveillance. 

February 2

1.22pm - Amman leaves his approved premises, the probation hostel, at Leigham Court Road.

1.50pm - Amman is seen on Streatham High Road. He is said to be walking 'very slowly'.

1.57pm - The 20-year-old enters a shop called Low Price Store. He is inside for barely a minute, and emerges with a knife which he has stolen. He is pursued by undercover police. Amman stabs two people - a man and a woman - before being shot at by an armed officer.

1.58pm - Amman, reaching the Boots shop, turns to face the police. Police shoot at him five times, with two shots hitting him. A total of 62 seconds after running from the shop, Amman falls to the ground.

2.40pm - A police explosives expert arrives on the scene to check the device around Amman's waist, which was identified as a hoax.

3.24pm - Sudesh Amman is pronounced dead by a paramedic.

The previous day, during a phone conversation about a recent family bereavement, Amman apparently told Ms Khan: 'Everybody going to die one day.'

Amman was the oldest of six brothers and had been expelled from school for poor behaviour. He grew up in Coventry and Birmingham before moving to Harrow, north-west London.

The inquest previously heard how Amman was deemed to be 'one of the most dangerous individuals' that police and MI5 teams had investigated, and that an officer feared an attack would be 'when, not if' during discussions a fortnight ahead of his release.

He was automatically released from Belmarsh prison on January 23, 2020, part-way through a 40-month sentence for obtaining and disseminating terrorist materials.

This was despite police pleas to the Belmarsh governor to detain Amman for longer after intelligence suggested he maintained an extremist mindset, and wanted to carry out a knife attack in the future.

He was also said to have associated in jail with a number of extremists, including Hashem Abedi, who conspired with his brother Salman over the 2017 Manchester Arena suicide bomb attack, and previously expressed regret he had not been involved in the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in 2013.

He also confided in others that he wanted to kill the Queen, the inquest heard.

Amman, who is of Sri Lankan descent, spent 10 days living in a bail hostel in Streatham, during which time undercover police teams monitoring him remarked at his 'concerning' behaviour.

Amman was seen by covert police buying four bottles of Irn-Bru, kitchen foil and parcel tape from Poundland on January 31, items which were used to make the 'crude' fake suicide belt.

But they said there was not enough evidence to arrest him and feared searching his room would blow their cover. 

The senior police officer leading the investigation into Amman has denied suggestions from his family's lawyer that the undercover operation was a failure.

The officer, known only as HA6 to protect his identity, stated there was a lack of evidence against the 20-year-old in the days before he struck.

He said police actions that day prevented further tragedy.

Giving evidence at the inquest into Amman's death on Friday, at the Royal Courts of Justice, the senior officer said: 'This is a view held by my peers.

'The professionalism and the bravery of those officers and what they prevented ... it could have been far, far worse.

'For those of us in the investigations team, we are grateful for their actions on that day.'  

Rajiv Menon QC, for Amman's family, accused police of making 'the wrong call' not to intervene at the time.

HA6 replied: 'Given the threat he posed, the methodology of the attack, I would counter that by saying the police stopped an attack that could have been far, far worse.'

He added: 'If he had been arrested, he would have been back out in the community and would have had an operational advantage.

'It would have made our response harder.'

The inquest continues.