Politicians put their differences aside on Friday night to show their solidarity with Paris after a spate of horrific terrorist attacks.

Wimbledon Times:

Parliamentary candidates for Mitcham and Morden, UKIP's Richard Hilton, Tory candidate Paul Holmes and Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh joined residents outside Merton Civic Centre for a peace vigil.

With Merton's union jack at half mast as a mark of respect for the 17 people shot dead last week, the small crowd lit candles, laid flowers and held signs proclaiming 'I am Charlie'.

The vigil was organised by Mr Hilton, who said he was contacted by a number of residents who said they wanted an opportunity to show their solidarity with Paris.

Mr Holmes said: "We stand united with Paris and tonight in Morden we have shown that no matter how many times people try to stop free speech, it will not work.

"As a democrat I am pleased to stand together with fellow candidates and residents and present a united message. Terrorism will not win."

Seventeen people were killed last week in shootings at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in a kosher supermarket and on a street in the south of Paris.

The dramatic events ended on Friday after armed police stormed the supermarket and printing offices where gunmen were holding hostages and killed the suspected terrorists.

Merton's Muslim community has also condemned the attacks, which were carried out in the name of Islam.

Speaking at a sermon on Friday, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, world leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, condemned the attacks which he said bore no relation to "the true teachings of Islam".

He said: "Nowhere does Islam permit taking the law into one's own hands or to injure or murder anyone.

"Yet these so-called Muslims and Muslim groups still do not abstain from such cruelties and atrocities."

Yesterday world leaders were among over a million people who marched through Paris to defend the values of liberty, democracy and equality.