A mass stabbing that took place on Wednesday night in central London left one woman dead and five people wounded after a man with suspected mental health issues attacked them with a knife.
The London Metropolitan Police responded to a call at around 10.30pm at Russell Square, a park near the British Museum, after receiving reports of an armed man assaulting people in the park.
Police officers arrived at the scene within five minutes and chased the suspect, who did not obey their orders to stand still and was later Tasered and taken into police custody.
The deceased woman was a US citizen in her 60s. She was treated at the scene by paramedics, but sadly she didn’t make it and was pronounced dead shortly after.
The other people injured in this mass stabbing were from Britain, America, Israel and Australia. Fortunately, they did not sustain life-threatening injuries and only one person from the group remains hospitalised in serious but stable condition.
The attacker is a 19-year-old Norwegian man of Somali origin. He was detained in Bedford Place on suspicion of murder.
Although the investigation is still underway in this case, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley from the Metropolitan Police has told the public they have no reason to believe this was an attack motivated by terrorism or political reasons, adding that all evidence points towards a spontaneous assault. He also says their theory is that the victims were “selected at random.”
The knife attack came just hours after Scotland Yard officials announced that 600 extra firearms officers would patrol the city’s streets for increased protection against an attack.
