A 14-year-old boy died this Tuesday, April 30, the victim of a man armed with a saber in London, who also injured four people, including two police officers, British police announced. The suspect, aged 36, was quickly arrested by the police, who were not looking for ‘no other suspects’. Local police official Stuart Bell said in a press statement that the other four injured had been hospitalized but “their lives did not appear to be in danger.” Two of them are still in hospital, he added.
In a press release, the police specified that they had been called “shortly before 8 o’clock” near a metro station in Hainault, a district in the east of the English capital, with witnesses claiming that “people had been stabbed”. The author of the facts “was hit by an electric pulse gun (…) and arrested 22 minutes later” the first call to the police. “We do not believe that the threat persists”also declared Ade Adelekan, a police official quoted in his press release. “This incident does not appear to be linked to terrorism,” he added.
The London Ambulance Service had earlier clarified that “taken care of five people” taken to hospital. “We are awaiting information on the condition of the injured people,” the police had indicated in the morning.
Images posted on social media and picked up by British media show a white, lightly bearded man, dressed in black pants and a yellow hoodie, saber in hand, walking erratically in front of houses, while cars police surround the scene. Witnesses reported hearing screams and screams.
Increase in stabbing attacks
In the process, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denounced a “shocking incident”. “My thoughts are with those affected and their families,” he wrote on (ex-Twitter), adding that“such violence has no place in our streets”. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he “absolutely devastated” by this attack. “The area has been secured (…) and additional reassurance patrols will be carried out in the area,” he added in a press release published on the social network.
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. On Monday, the Prime Minister said that the increase in knife crime in London “highlighted the reality of the Labor Party” when he is responsible. For its part, the government promised last year to ban certain types of knives or machetes, without realizing its ambition for the moment. “It’s not about the elections. There is a family that lost a child and I think we should focus on that,” replied Sadiq Khan on Tuesday, asked on Sky News about the impact of this attack two days before the vote.
According to official figures, stabbing attacks increased by 7% last year to almost 50,000 in England and Wales. In London, they skyrocketed by 20% with 14,577 attacks recorded, returning more or less to their level before the Covid-19 pandemic. Eighteen miners were killed last year.
Update at 4:08 p.m. with the victim’s age changed to 14 years old and not 13 years old, as erroneously declared by the police.