U.S. citizen among victims of stabbing attack in Britain

Reuters
Updated ·1 min read

LONDON (Reuters) - One of the victims of a stabbing attack in the English town of Reading on Saturday was a U.S. citizen, the U.S. ambassador to London confirmed on Monday.

Authorities have attributed the attack in which three people were killed to terrorism.

U.S. ambassador Woody Johnson on twitter offered his "deepest condolences" to the families of those killed.

"To our great sorrow, this includes an American citizen. Our thoughts are with all those affected. We condemn the attack absolutely and have offered our assistance to British law enforcement," he tweeted.

The Philadelphia Inquirer named the U.S. victim as Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who had lived in Britain for 15 years.

British teacher James Furlong, 36, has also been named as one of the victims.

(Reporting by Sarah Young and Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Estelle Shirbon)