A police officer stands near a cordoned area following a stabbing at Leicester Square in London. Photo / Getty Images
A police officer stands near a cordoned area following a stabbing at Leicester Square in London. Photo / Getty Images
An 11-year-old girl has been taken to hospital after she and her mother were stabbed by a stranger in central London, England.
The Metropolitan Police said its officers went to the scene of a stabbing in Leicester Square, where the girl and a 34-year-old were attacked.
A witness described the attacker putting the child in a headlock and stabbing her repeatedly.
The force said a man had been arrested and was in custody. Police do not believe the suspect knew the victims and said they did not believe the attack to be terror-related.
The girl and the woman have been taken to hospital and their condition is not yet known.
A security guard claimed he “jumped on” and wrestled a knife from the attacker.
The 29-year-old, who gave his name as Abdullah, said he worked at the nearby TWG Tea Shop. He said: “I heard a scream, at that moment I saw there was one person, roughly mid-30s or early 30s, and he was like stabbing a kid. I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was [carrying] a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him.
“Then a couple of more people joined as well, and we just held him until the police came, it took maybe three to four minutes for the police to arrive and then they just took him into custody.”
He said he and his colleagues had given first aid to the child before the police arrived, adding: “I just saw a kid getting stabbed and I just tried to save her. It’s my duty to just save them.”
He added that he did not know whether the girl was with family members at the time.
Police officers at the scene in Leicester Square, London, as a man has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl and 34-year-old woman were stabbed. Photo / Getty Images
‘I was heartbroken’
A street performer who witnessed the stabbing said he saw a young, white male wearing a black T-shirt and jeans attack the pair.
Desmond, 45, said the knifeman focused the attack on the girl, putting her in a headlock and stabbing her.
Desmond, who performs as Darth Vader on the square “every day”, told The Daily Telegraph that he was standing outside the Lego store when the stabbing took place.
He said: “I was looking forwards, and when I heard the screaming I had to turn to the side. And when I looked he [the assailant] was attacking the little girl. He was stabbing her with a knife.”
Before Desmond could get down off his stand, he said two men who appeared to be passing by intervened.
He said: “The two boys who were passing, they rushed the [attacker], and pushed him to the ground. And the police got there really quickly and handcuffed him and put him in a van.”
When the police arrived and put the attacker in handcuffs, Desmond told the Telegraph that the attacker did not resist: “He was not fighting or struggling with them, he was not struggling at all.”
Earlier, Desmond told reporters: “I think the woman was also stabbed once, but the child was the most targeted; he was stabbing the child several times.”
He added: “It was so terrible, I’ve never seen a thing like that. I was heartbroken, I saw the woman was screaming with all her strength.”
‘There was a lot of blood’
Rahul, a security guard at Gregg’s, said: “I was inside, but I came outside when I heard the noise of the girl crying ‘mummy, mummy’,” he told the Telegraph.
“There was a lot of blood, when I went there. On the girl and on her hands,” he said.
He added that the girl was taken inside the store until an ambulance and police arrived.
The manager of a tour bus company kiosk who noticed the suspect more than an hour before the stabbing said he appeared mentally disturbed and “like a homeless man”.
Abu Tauhid, manager of the Leicester Square Tootbus kiosk, told the Telegraph that the suspect’s behaviour caught his eye because he was “standing around” and “talking to himself”.
“When I first noticed him around 10am, I saw him standing there outside the M&M store and he was roaming around talking to himself,” he said. “He looked like a kind of homeless guy. That’s why he got my attention. Because I’ve worked here for a long, long time, so I know all the homeless people around here. But today is first time I saw him, I hadn’t seen him before. So that’s how I noticed him.”
Tauhid added: “He was standing there looking around for a long time. So you can understand that his mental stability appeared questionable.”
An hour and a half later, Tauhid noticed the police activity. “Around 11.30 I saw lots of police coming. And then I went down there to see what happened. And then I saw the police arrest him,” he said.
Footage of the scene shared with the Telegraph shows a man wearing a black T-shirt with what appears to be an Abbey Road logo and black tracksuit trousers. The two officers are seen pinning his arms behind his back.
Discarded clothing and emergency medical equipment in the TWG Tea shop in Leicester Square, London, as a man has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl and 34-year-old woman were stabbed. Photo / Getty Images
Detective Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah, in charge of policing for Westminster, said: “This is a horrific incident and our thoughts are with the victims and their family. We will continue to provide support to them over the coming days and weeks.
“I would like to pay tribute to the members of the public, including staff from local businesses, who bravely intervened in this incident. They put themselves at risk and showed the best of London in doing so.
“An urgent investigation is now ongoing and detectives are working to establish the details around exactly what happened.
“At this stage we don’t believe the suspect and the victims were known to each other.
“While we continue to work to establish the suspect’s motive, at this stage there is nothing to indicate the attack was terror-related.
“Detectives will be keen to speak to anyone who was in the area and may have information that can assist with their enquiries. I would urge anyone who can help to get in touch.”
A police cordon was put in place surrounding the double doors of the TWG Tea shop.
An ambulance spokesman said: “We were called at 11.36am on Monday, August 12, to reports of a stabbing at Leicester Square.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic and an incident response officer. We also dispatched members of our tactical response unit.
“We treated a child and an adult at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre.”
Leicester Square and the surrounding area – home to shops, theatres, cinemas and restaurants – has an estimated 2.5 million visitors every week.
