Aged 36, the suspect appears to have acted alone. While he had not yet been able to be questioned on Tuesday evening, the terrorist motive had already been ruled out.
“Shortly before 7 a.m.” local time on Tuesday, April 30, the police were contacted by several witnesses of a particularly violent scene. Several people had just been attacked by a man with a Japanese sword in the north-east of London, near Hainault metro station. Among the victims, a 14-year-old teenager. The young man sadly died from his injuries after being taken to hospital. According to Guardian, four other people were reportedly injured, including two police officers who both had to undergo surgery. If their injuries were considered “significant”, their lives were not in danger. The vital prognosis of the two passers-by, also injured, was not in jeopardy either.
To British media, the police revealed that they had arrested the main suspect in this saber attack 22 minutes after receiving the first alert call. Injured when his van crashed with a building, the 36-year-old man was also hospitalized. Tuesday evening, his state of health did not allow investigators to carry out a first interview with the suspect. However, Louisa Rolfe, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, stressed that the police had “so far found no trace of a previous incident involving him”. During a press conference, Stuart Bell, head of the local police, affirmed that the suspect did not appear to have had “terrorist” motivation.
Nearly 15,000 stabbing attacks recorded in 2023 in London
According to the first elements of the investigation, no religious motive was expressed and the individual attacked passers-by at random. He was neutralized and immobilized using an electric pulse gun. On social networks, images showing a man dressed in a yellow hoodie and armed with a katana, prowling the street in the area are circulating. The authorities have asked not to broadcast this type of images.
This attack comes a few days before local elections in London, and while the mayor’s security record is strongly criticized by the opposition. However, Le Figaro recalls that this type of stabbing attack has been increasing in recent years across the Channel. In 2023, they would have increased by 7% to reach almost 50,000 cases recorded in Wales and England. In London, an increase of 20% was even noted. With just under 15,000 cases, the pre-Covid level has been caught up.