A 36-year-old man armed with a sword was arrested on Tuesday April 30 in London. He is suspected of having killed a 14-year-old boy and injured four other people, including two police officers.
A man armed with a sword killed a 14-year-old boy and injured four other people on Tuesday April 30 in London. The suspect was quickly arrested by the police who ruled out any terrorist motive at this stage.
• Police called by witnesses “shortly before 7 a.m.”
Police were called “shortly before 7am” (local time) on Tuesday by people living near Hainault metro station, in the north-east of the British capital, claiming that people had been stabbed.
Images posted on social media and picked up by British media show a slightly bearded white man, dressed in black pants and a yellow hoodie, sword in hand, walking erratically in front of houses, while cars police surround the scene.
Witnesses said they were awakened by screams and screams. A resident told the PA agency that she saw a body on the ground from inside her apartment and heard the man shout several times to police officers, “Do you believe in God?”
• A teenager killed and four injured
London’s emergency services said they had taken five people to hospital, before police announced the death of one of them.
“It is with great sadness that I can confirm that one of those injured in the attack, a 14-year-old boy, died” after being taken to hospital, said local police official Stuart Bell in front of the press, calling the attack “truly horrible”.
The four other injured people were hospitalized and “their lives did not appear to be in danger”, according to Stuart Bell. He also specified that two police officers were among the victims.
• One man arrested, no other suspects sought
A 36-year-old man was arrested using an electric gun “22 minutes after” the first call to police. He was admitted to hospital, local police said in the afternoon. He was injured after his vehicle collided with a building, according to The Guardian. The police have not yet been able to self-punish him.
No other suspects are being sought and a terrorist motive has been ruled out at this stage. Also, investigators have not found any trace of the suspect in previous incidents at this point. The police presence will be increased in the coming days in the area and the police are asking anyone with information to contact them.
• The Prime Minister denounced a “shocking incident”
Shortly after the incident, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denounced a “shocking incident”. “My thoughts are with those affected and their families,” he wrote on X, adding that “such violence has no place on our streets.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that King Charles III had asked to be “fully informed” of the progress of the investigation, and that his thoughts and prayers were with the victims, and particularly with the teenager who lost his life, according to The Guardian.
This attack comes against a backdrop of an increase in stabbing attacks in the United Kingdom and two days before local elections in the British capital, where the conservative opposition is very critical of the security record of Labor mayor Sadiq Khan.
The latter said he was “absolutely devastated” by this attack. Asked on Sky News about the consequences of this attack two days before the vote, he said that it “is not about the elections”, before continuing: “There is a family who lost a child and I think that we should focus on that.”
According to official figures, there were almost 50,000 stabbing attacks last year in England and Wales, an increase of 7% in one year. In London, they soared by 20% with 14,577 attacks recorded, returning more or less to their level before the Covid-19 pandemic.
