London Metropolitan Police have arrested a 32-year-old man accused of stabbing a 34-year-old mother and her 11-year-old daughter Monday, BBC reports.
The knifing occurred at London’s busy Leicester Square and a local worker reportedly intervened to minimize the damage. The child was struck several times near the right eye and the woman sustained less serious injuries. Both were taken to the hospital where they were assessed as having “serious” but not life-threatening injuries according to the BBC.
A man who identified himself as Abdullah, 29, said he saw the attack and physically pulled the assailant away from the mother and child and then proceeded to give first aid. Metropolitan police said they are "not looking for anyone else" and don’t believe the incident was terror related. The attacker was described by one eye witness as “mentally disturbed” based on the spontaneous nature of the assault.
Abdullah told the PA news agency, according to the Guardian: “I heard a scream. At that moment I saw there was one person, roughly [in their] 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.”
Ezat Katerzis, who manages a local bus tour company, told the Guardian that the attacker appeared to be “mentally disturbed.”
“It looked like he had something missing. He just stabbed the girl out of the blue. She was with her family.”
Violence has been widespread throughout the UK since the stabbing death of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance class on July 29 in Southport.
The riots have resulted in almost 1,000 arrests, many for social media “crimes”. London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley has even threatened American citizens with legal action for their social media posts that violate UK laws, suggesting they could be extradited to the UK to stand trial for social media crimes.
