An American woman has been stabbed to death by a man of Somali origin as part of a knife rampage that also left five people injured.
The unidentified 19-year-old attacked passers-by – seemingly at random – in London’s Russell Square on Wednesday night.
The man was stunned by police Taser weapons, tackled to the ground and arrested on suspicion of murder.
BBC EXCLUSIVE: Eyewitness footage of Russell Square incident: pic.twitter.com/ii1muJUUh6
— Dominic Casciani (@BBCDomC) August 4, 2016
Police were swift to dismiss terror as a possible motive for the attack, which was instead blamed on mental health problems.
Met Chief vows 'we will protect our Capital' following Russell Square attack https://t.co/h1qI3D0use
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) August 4, 2016
Mark Rowley, the assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, said: “We’ve found no evidence of radicalisation that would suggest the man in our custody is in anyway motivated by terrorism.”
The victim, who was in her 60s, has not been named. The other victims are also yet to be identified.
Matthew Barzun, the American ambassador to the UK, tweeted his condolences:
Heartbreaking news that a U.S. citizen was killed in #RussellSquare attack. My prayers are with all the victims and their loved ones.
— Matthew Barzun (@MatthewBarzun) August 4, 2016
Authorities later revealed that the man was a migrant from Norway, whose parents had come from Somalia.
The teen had lived in the UK for most of his life after moving there in 2002, when he was five years old, according to Norway’s foreign ministry.
The attack came on the same day that London’s police unveiled the next generation of armed police, designed to protect the capital from a terror attack.
London has so far escaped the fate of other European cities like Paris, Brussels, Munich and Nice – all of which have been hit by devastating massacres in the past year.
But earlier this week Britain’s most senior policeman said that a terror attack in the near future is a case “of when, not if”.
