The British government promised changes to the system for dealing with convicted terrorists released from prison, after police shot dead an Islamist extremist who stabbed two people in a south London street on Sunday. 

Police said Sudesh Amman, 20, was wearing a fake suicide vest. He was shot on the busy Streatham High Road at 14:00 GMT. Amman was recently given early release from prison where he was serving time for terror offences. 

The attack came just over two months after armed police shot dead a convicted terrorist on early release when two people who were attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference were stabbed on London Bridge. 

The government responded to that attack by announcing that they would announce longer sentences for terrorism offences, an end to early release and an increase in the counter-terrorism police budget in the coming financial year. 

On Sunday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We will announce further plans for fundamental changes to the system for dealing with those convicted of terrorism offences."

In a statement outside New Scotland Yard, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D'Orsi said: "The suspect had been recently released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for Islamist-related offences."

Amman had been arrested in north London in May 2018 on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, a month after officers were told of posts he had made on the secure messaging service Telegram. 

CGTN's Andrew Wilson: What we know about the London attack

Some witnesses said the man had been armed with a machete and one described him as wearing silver canisters on his chest. Social media footage shows armed police officers surrounding a man lying on the ground on Streatham High Road. They then moved away, urging onlookers to move back, as other emergency vehicles arrived at the scene. 

The London ambulance service said three people were injured and had been taken to hospital after the attack in Streatham, a residential district south of the River Thames. 

Police said one man in his 40s was in a non-life-threatening condition in hospital. A woman in her 50s has been discharged from hospital and another woman, in her 20 suffered minor injuries, thought to have been caused by broken glass following the police shooting of Amman.

Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: "The police and the emergency services have been fantastic in their response: they got here quite quickly, responded to the incident, taking down the perpetrator, who, as you may know, they had been watching for some time. So hopefully we'll hear more information about that tomorrow.

"It is very shocking. But I think the main thing for them to hear is people do these terrible things, but not to be afraid. Our emergency services have gone in swiftly to protect us. And as I've said, if we continue in that fear or if we continue to be divided by things like this, the terrorists have won."

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted "Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected."

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted that she is being "kept updated" and that her "first thoughts are with the victims, our brave police and emergency services and their families."