One woman dead and five injured after attack
19-year-old man Tasered by officers and now in custody
Police: ‘terrorism remains line of enquiry’
Read the latest report
6.06pm BST
The Israeli woman injured in the Russell Square stabbings is an 18-year-old from Tel Aviv on a pre-enlistment trip to London, according to an Israeli news report.
Yuval Labkovsky was returning to her hotel with her grandfather, after eating in a Thai restaurant, when she was set upon. Labkovsky was lightly injured in her hand during the stabbing attack and released after treatment in hospital.
2.37pm BST
Jo Loughran, interim director of Time to Change, the mental health anti-stigma campaign run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, has urged the media to ensure any reporting of a mental health element to the Russell Square attacks is “informed and balanced”. She points out that the overwhelming majority of people with mental health problems will never pose a risk to others. She said:
We understand that the police have released an update about the tragic incident at Russell Square stating that mental health is an increasingly significant factor in this case. The media must rightly report on this angle but we encourage them to do so responsibly.
There have been a number of horrendous acts of violence committed across Europe over recent weeks. As the media look to unpick these extremely complex incidents to explore motivations and reason we urge journalists and editors to provide well informed and balanced coverage of mental health.
2.28pm BST
A spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said two Australians were injured - a man who is already out of hospital and a woman who is expected to be discharged shortly.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed with London police the condition of two Australians injured in a stabbing attack in Russell Square, London. A man and a woman both sustained non-life threatening injuries. The man has already been discharged from hospital while the woman is expected to be discharged soon. Another Australian woman was at the scene of the attack, but was not injured. Consular assistance has been provided to the man and one of the women and DFAT is attempting to contact the other woman involved to offer consular assistance.
1.54pm BST
US ambassador to the UK Matthew Barzun has posted a tribute to the American victim on Twitter.
Heartbreaking news that a U.S. citizen was killed in #RussellSquare attack. My prayers are with all the victims and their loved ones.
1.29pm BST
12.42pm BST
The Jewish Chronicle quotes a spokesman for the Israeli embassy confirming one of the injured was an Israeli woman on holiday in the UK visiting friends and family.
He said:
She was injured and taken to hospital but was discharged and she is doing ok.
12.27pm BST
The suspect emigrated from Norway to the UK in 2002, the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs has said (so he would have been around five-years-old).
It has appointed a liaison officer to assist in the case. A spokesman said:
We will assist the British police in the normal manner, with information and any requests they might have in their investigation.
12.22pm BST
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the police have focused on five strands of work:
- Interviewing the suspect
- Speaking with the suspect’s family
- Witness accounts
- Searches
- Full intelligence review of the suspect by police and the security service
12.09pm BST
A Norwegian national of Somali origin has been arrested on suspicion of murdering an American woman and injuring five others, including Britons, in what was described by police as a “spontaneous attack”.
Speaking outside Scotland Yard headquarters, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, said there was no evidence that the 19-year-old suspect had been radicalised.
While the investigation is not yet complete all of the work we have done so far, increasingly points to this tragic incident as having been triggered by mental health issues.
Indeed at this time we believe it was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random.
This morning we’ve searched addresses in North London and we will search another in south London. I emphasise that so far we’ve found no evidence of radicalisation that would suggest the man in our custody is in anyway motivated by terrorism.
11.54am BST
Rowley said none of the people in hospital have life-threatening injuries.
11.52am BST
Rowley says the suspect was a Norwegian national of Somali origin. There is no evidence he was radicalised.
At this point we believe this is a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random.
11.50am BST
The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, is speaking outside Scotland Yard.
He says the murdered woman was from the US and the injured are British, American, Australian and Israeli.
11.30am BST
A woman who witnessed the aftermath of the Russell Square stabbings has told the BBC how she saw a man running away from police, carrying a knife with blood on his hands.
Jodie Parry was in her hotel room when she heard a commotion.
As he was running down the street he was turning to see if the police were coming close. I could hear the policeman screaming ‘stop, don’t move, don’t go any further, just stay where you are’ and he turned around and continued running. He just wasn’t prepared to stop ...He was actually carrying a knife in his hand and he had blood on his hands.
They had actually gone out of my vision at that point, but I did hear the Taser, and at that point I just heard a little scream and then it kind of went silent.
11.21am BST
The BBC has brief footage of the suspect in the Russell Square attacks being arrested:
BBC EXCLUSIVE: Eyewitness footage of Russell Square incident: pic.twitter.com/ii1muJUUh6
11.18am BST
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, making a scheduled speech in Dagenham, east London, has begun by expressing sympathy to the woman who was killed and thanking the police for their response.
Jeremy Corbyn offers his condolences for the victim of the Russell Square attack pic.twitter.com/CKONmwM8MD
11.13am BST
The forensics tent at the spot where the woman was killed in Russell Square has been taken down.
Taking down the forensics tent. Police say they want to get things back to normal as quickly as poss #Russellsquare pic.twitter.com/ixPSA15Bga
11.04am BST
The Met Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has confirmed that mental health remains a “substantial focus for our investigation”. He has said his thoughts are with those affected and praised the police response as “professional and proportionate”.
My thoughts are with the family of the woman who was murdered and those who were injured. A normal night out in our busy capital has ended in horrific circumstances.
Our investigation is moving very quickly and our detectives have been working hard throughout the night. As we have already made clear, mental health remains a substantial focus for our investigation.
10.58am BST
Mental illness is a significant part of what Metropolitan Police officers deal with every day and they get 600,000 calls about it a year. They are called to far more incidents involving mental health problems than robbery or sexual offences, a report by the mental health charity Turning Point found in 2013.
On pages 11/12 the report states that:
In 2012 there were 61,258 mental health related calls; this is 21,741 more than robbery and 47,203 more than for sexual offences. The Metropolitan Police Service review also stated that it has been estimated that 15% to 25% of incidents are linked to mental health. Using this estimate the daily contact rises to a minimum of 1,626 calls per day -- the equivalent of around 600,000 calls per year.
10.53am BST
Ellie Cattle, 21, who is staying in a hotel on Bedford Place, off Russell Square, told the Press Association she heard police shouting: “Put it down, put it down.”
I looked out of my window because I heard sirens. I could see police - three police vans - coming down the road, and all I heard was them shouting ‘Put it down, put it down’.
They sounded urgent for him to put it down. Then I heard what sounded like a gunshot, but it must have been the Taser. After that they just stopped shouting. I didn’t hear any screams from anyone.
10.47am BST
Alex Hall, 18, (on the right in video) said he and his friends came out of a restaurant in Russell Square and saw police trying to resuscitate a woman.
We were walking along and we saw three police cars and an ambulance. They were doing CPR on a woman lying on the ground. We thought it must have been someone having a heart attack. The police were shouting at people to get back.
10.30am BST
Spanish tourists Anna Calderon (right) and Laura Gomez (centre) said they saw one of the victims, a blonde woman in her 20s or 30s, running northwards up Southampton Row. Gomez said:
We saw a woman with her hand holding her side. She was running and shouting ‘I need a hospital. I need a hospital.’ A man who looked like he was in his 60s and a woman stopped a taxi and helped her. We had just said goodbye to a friend who lives here in London and we saw this.
We didn’t understand what was going on because there was no blood. It was about 10.35pm.
When we got to the hotel we heard the sound of ambulances. But we didn’t know anything until we saw what had happened this morning on the TV.
Scared? No, because I think it is an incident that could happen anywhere and we live in Madrid and we had the terrorist attack on the train so we know what the risks are.
10.26am BST
There are three vans full of police outside Marylebone station. They don’t seem to be doing anything, just sitting there. One told me:
It’s because of what happened last night. We’re not expecting anything bad to happen, these are literally just reassurance patrols.
10.18am BST
The two hotels that overlook the street where the incident occurred, the Imperial and the President, do not have CCTV cameras that face onto the square. A porter at the imperial said their CCTV cameras look inwards and they have informed police.
One guest at the President, Michel Godbout, who has been visiting London from Canada, said:
About 10.30pm, I was in my room and I heard a woman screaming - a couple of times in one minute, then I didn’t hear anything. I was almost asleep, I heard police after that but didn’t look out the window. My view is blocked by trees. I only found out what happened this morning when I turned on the TV, if I had known I would have gone out to help or something.
10.17am BST
Responding to the police’s statement that mental illness was a factor in the stabbings, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, the leading psychiatrist and president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said that killings by people with psychiatric problems had been falling for the last 30 years.
But, Wessely added, much more needs to be done to help “alienated, disturbed, troubled” adolescents and young people with mental health problems, a very few of whom are at risk of committing violence. However, he cautioned against any attempt to increase the number of people detained due to psychiatric problems. He said:
We should be very careful about looking for new compulsory powers to lock people up. We already have a very carefully thought-through Mental Health Act, which allows certain people to be detained and compulsorily treatment, in certain circumstances, for mental illness. But neither radicalism nor terrorism is a mental health diagnosis or disorder under the meaning of the Act.
We should be improving services for alienated and mentally troubled adolescents and young people, to help their mental health. But we should be careful not to do things that will increase their alienation, which can then make them more not less vulnerable to radical influences.
We know that some people, so called ‘lone actors’, do commit awful crimes, for example in school killings in America and the killings in Norway. There’s a link with mental illness, that’s true. Looking back at the history of people who have committed offences like this does show increased risk [that the assailant had psychiatric problems], that’s true. These offences are quite rare, thank God. But there is definitely an increased risk.
10.06am BST
Fernando, a Brazilian Londoner, who works nearby, said he was cycling home through Russell Square last night when a Spanish family asked him to stop and call the police and ambulance because a lady had collapsed.
There were three people stabbed. The older woman was slumping against the gates, and it was another two people. One of the Spanish family was comforting the older woman.
I thought they were friends, but then I realised that they were just passing. No-one knew each other.
The moment the police arrived, they asked them if the man had been shouting.
They said that he didn’t say anything. They said that when he stabbed the people he didn’t shout or scream anything.
9.38am BST
There are a number of hotels in and around Russell Square and the Evening Standard has spoken to some of their staff about what they heard or saw.
Manuel Simo, 32, a supervisor at the Royal National hotel in Bedford Way, said:
At first, people were confused and thought it was a traffic accident.
When they realised what was happening people were screaming and running away from a guy who was holding a knife.
I could see four police officers restraining him, holding him face-down on the floor.
He wasn’t struggling I think he knew it was over. One police officer was about to get his handcuffs on him and was speaking into his ear.
9.27am BST
Scotland Yard has removed any reference to terrorism in its latest update in what is a small but potentially significant change.
In the original release assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said:
Early indications suggest mental health is a significant factor in this case and that is one major line of inquiry. But of course at this stage we should keep an open mind regarding motive and consequently terrorism as a motivation remains but one line of inquiry for us to explore.
Early indications suggest that mental health was a factor in this horrific attack. However we are keeping an open mind regarding the motive.
9.10am BST
The Met Police have also released some more details of their response to the incident:
Police received the first call just after 10.30pm reporting a man armed with a knife was assaulting people at Russell Square, Camden.
Numerous other calls were made by members of the public between 10.30pm and 11pm with reports of a man attacking people with a knife between Russell Square, Montague Street, Bloomsbury Square and Great Russell Street.
9.03am BST
The 19-year-old suspect has been discharged from hospital - he was Tasered during the incident -and is now in custody at a south London police station, the Met police have said.
He has also been formally arrested on suspicion of murder.
We continue to focus our lines of inquiry on mental health while retaining an open mind regarding the motive.
8.51am BST
These two police officers carrying semi-automatic carbines were keeping guard outside the National Gallery, in Trafalgar Square, in central London.
“We deal with everything from having strong words with someone to lethal force,” one said.
8.36am BST
Amateur film maker Stuart Kenny witnessed the incident (seemingly from a hotel window)
I think there's been an incident outside the Imperial Hotel on Russell Square in London. :( #London pic.twitter.com/t0plUsWM1p
Just to clarify folks, I didn't see anything. Me and my Dad heard screams, we thought it was kids mucking around, until we looked outside.
8.27am BST
A number of the cordons around the scene of the attack have now been lifted:
Detectives continue to investigate incident in #RussellSquare most cordons have now been lifted. One partial road closure remains in place
8.25am BST
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has expressed his shock at last night’s events.
Shocking attack in London last night. Thoughts are with family and friends of the victims
8.23am BST
Are you affected by the events in Russell Square? You can share your eyewitness accounts, photos and videos or news tips direct with our journalists by clicking on the blue button. You can also share your stories, photos and videos with the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.
8.20am BST
Three of the people injured in the attack have been discharged from hospital. Two remain in hospital.
Two people who were injured in the #RussellSquare incident remain in hospital. Three others have been discharged. Further update to follow
8.17am BST
The Metropolitan police have put out a renewed call for witnesses:
We continue to appeal for witnesses following the incident in #RussellSquare anyone with any info is asked to contact 020 8721 4868
8.04am BST
Pol O’ Geibheannaigh told Sky News:
I was approaching the [Night and Day] bar coming back from the cinema about 11.15pm. Close to the corner of Russell Square, the first thing I saw was an armed policeman and I looked down the street and it was just wall to wall police and police vans. Then about 100m from the corner of the square there was a body covered in a red blanket with dark matter around it which I assumed to be blood and more police arrived more police, no ambulances. At the time it was intense, really intense.
There was no ambulance there. I counted the vans, there were 20 to 30 vans. I was looking for the ambulance, there was no ambulance.
7.43am BST
John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor, has been speaking to Sky News.
He says he supports the increased police presence on the streets of London.
7.36am BST
Russell Square remains cordoned off by police this morning.
Phillipa Bagley is visiting London and was staying at the President hotel last night:
The bar of the President comes out on to the square. I just came down for a cigarette and saw there was a man with a motorbike helmet balanced on his head walking up and down, then the police came.
There was about six or seven people standing around. I thought there had been an accident, I had no idea anyone had been stabbed. I found out this morning. I was shocked.
7.07am BST
Early indications suggest mental health is a significant factor in this case and that is one major line of inquiry.
But of course at this stage we should keep an open mind regarding motive and consequently terrorism as a motivation remains but one line of inquiry for us to explore.
6.57am BST
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, says police are doing an “incredibly difficult job” and the safety of Londoners is his “number one priority”.
He says police officers have spoken to the suspect, who was arrested at the scene and is in hospital.
I have spoken with the commissioner, and the assistant commissioner, who have assured me that our police officers are working extremely hard to investigate exactly what has happened and to keep the rest of us safe.
A man was arrested at the scene. Police have spoken to him and are seeking to establish the full facts including motives for this attack.
6.54am BST
Forensic tent at the spot in London's Russell Square where woman stabbed to death and others injured in knife attack pic.twitter.com/gSTvyocl6s
6.49am BST
Khan added that his “heart goes out to the victims of the incident in Russell Square and their loved ones”.
One woman died, and five other people were injured in the stabbing.
6.37am BST
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has urged Londoners to remain “calm and vigilant”.
The Metropolitan police has said there will be an increased police presence, including armed officers, on the streets of the capital today.
6.30am BST
As the day begins, Russell Square remains quiet, Press Association reports:
A heavy police presence and cordon remained in place on Thursday morning, with a forensics tent marking the spot where the woman was killed.
A private ambulance was seen removing the body at around 5.20am, after forensics officers had finished scouring the scene for evidence.
6.05am BST
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said:
We were called at 10.33pm last night to an incident in Russell Square, WC1.
We sent a number of staff to the scene, including four ambulance crews, a responder in a car, an advanced paramedic and two officers.
5.50am BST
5.26am BST
Extra police patrols will be on London’s streets on Thursday morning following the knife attack. These will include armed officers, with the extra patrols meant to reassure the public, but also visibly demonstrating to the Met’s political bosses they can deal with the challenges terrorism – which is not a confirmed motive in the Russell Square attack – presents.
Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said:
As a precautionary measure, Londoners will wake up this morning to notice an increased presence on the streets of officers, including armed officers today. We would urge the public to remain calm, alert and vigilant.
5.18am BST
Here is video of Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan police, giving his earlier statement on the stabbing, the victims and the 19-year-old who remains under arrest in hospital:
RAW VIDEO: 1 dead and 5 other injured in London knife attack. https://t.co/NafAUnovtU
5.06am BST
A new statement from the Metropolitan police now says that two women and three men (and not one woman and four men, as earlier reported) were the five people injured in the attack.
This is in addition to the woman who died at the scene.
4.49am BST
Although police say terrorism is just one possible line of enquiry in the Russell Square attack, its comes amid heightened fear of a terrorist attack in the UK. On Sunday, Britain’s most senior police officer, Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said an attack was a matter of when not if.
UK security officials have watched in alarm as France has suffered repeated attacks, as well as Germany, and believe a similar incident in the UK is verging on inevitable.
4.35am BST
The Met made knife crime a focus earlier this year, when it released statistics that showed it had been called to more than 9,000 stabbing-related incidents in London in the year ending April 2016.
More than 1,620 victims were under the age of 25, including 866 teenagers. Twelve victims had been killed.
We’ve got to make sure that we try and prevent young people from carrying knives in the first place. Every time a young person carries a knife is a sign of failure.
4.21am BST
At present, we have very few details about the suspect or the victims.
The woman who died was in her 60s, police said.
4.04am BST
Mark Rowley, who gave the latest police statement (see below), is Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer. He serves as an assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan police and leads its specialist operations division, which is the home for the counter-terrorism command.
What leads police to consider terrorism as a possibility is not publicly being discussed. Police in the UK tend to be less open than, say, their counterparts in the United States.
3.59am BST
Police were called just after 10.30pm last night [Wednesday] to reports of a man armed with a knife assaulting people at at Russell Square, Camden.
Armed officers arrived at the scene within five minutes. They discharged the Taser while confronting and arresting the suspect.
3.48am BST
The woman who died was in her 60s, police said, giving no further information.
Five people – one woman and four men – have received “various injuries”.
3.46am BST
We have just had an update from the police.
A 19-year-old man was Tasered by officers and is in custody in hospital.
Mental health is a significant factor in this case.
Terrorism remains one line of inquiry for us to explore.
3.42am BST
My colleague Richard Barnes is at Russell Square and sends this update. It is currently 3.40am in London:
Just after 2am at the opposite end of Bedford Place, which runs away from the south side of Russell Square, a police officer was stopping people entering the road, which was cordoned off with police tape. Pointing up towards the square he said “seven people had been stabbed”, and that the suspect had been caught just behind him – where two forensic team officers in protective suits were going about their work – and was now in custody.
He was unable to give any more information either about the victims, the suspect, or what the motive might have been.
3.37am BST
We are expecting a statement from police shortly.
Vikram Dodd, the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, reports that counter-terrorism officers are now involved in the investigation:
Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism command, known as SO15, are involved in the investigation.
At first officers from the local borough responded and made the arrest following the detention of the suspect.
3.33am BST
A mass stabbing in central London has left one woman dead and up to six people wounded after a man with a knife attacked people in Russell Square.
Police said the attack took place at around 10.30pm on Wednesday night.
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