A 14-year-old boy died Tuesday after being stabbed in a sword attack in London that hurt several other people, including police officers, local authorities said.
The deceased child has not been identified, but his death was confirmed by police after a 36-year-old man was arrested following the disturbing incident in the Hainault area of northeast London. The Metropolitan Police said its officers were first called shortly before 7 a.m. “to reports of a vehicle being driven into a house” and warnings that “people had been stabbed.”
Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell, who leads Scotland Yard’s local policing for the East Area Command, said in a later update that the boy had died after being taken to a hospital. “The events of this morning are truly horrific and I cannot begin to imagine how all those affected must be feeling,” Bell said.
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The officer said that a total of five people were hurt during the stabbing attack: three members of the public and two police officers. The wounds suffered by the surviving members of the public and the officers are thought to be non-life-threatening, Bell added, though he said the two cops will require surgery for their “significant injuries.”
The suspect was Tasered and taken into custody 22 minutes after the first call was made to police, Bell said. He said the attack is not thought to be terror-related.
Video circulating on social media appears to show the suspect wielding a long blade on a residential street. Multiple emergency services vehicles are also at the scene and shouts can be heard, possibly between the suspect and police.
The Metropolitan Police X account posted that it is “aware of graphic images and video on social media following the attack in Hainault.” “We ask users to consider the impact of sharing these, particularly those of the fatally injured victim,” the account added, instead encouraging anyone with footage that could help the investigation to give the video to authorities.
Chris Bates, an eyewitness, told BBC radio that he saw the suspect running in the area. “He ran through the gardens and came out onto the street by the house next door to me,” Bates said. “The police were there. He then ran down to two doors down, and tried to get on the sort of scaffold, and they Tasered him and took him down.”
“This is a shocking incident,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. “My thoughts are with those affected and their families. I’d like to thank the emergency services for their ongoing response, and pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery shown by police on the scene. Such violence has no place on our streets.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson separately said King Charles III—who carried out his first official public duty Tuesday since his cancer diagnosis—has “asked to be kept fully informed as details of the incident become clearer.”
“His thoughts and prayers are with all those affected—in particular, the family of the young victim who has lost his life—and he salutes the courage of the emergency services who helped contain the situation,” the spokesperson said.
