Boy, 14, killed in sword attack

A 14-year-old boy has died after an attacker armed with a sword went on a rampage in north-east London.

Police were called to reports that a car crashed into a house and people were stabbed in Hainault at around 07:00 BST.

The boy was taken to hospital, where he later died.

Four other people, including two police officers, were injured before the suspect, who had jumped over people’s garden fences, was cornered in a front garden and insulted.

The 36-year-old man was arrested and Metropolitan Police said he was in hospital being treated for injuries he sustained when the vehicle he was in crashed into the house.

Due to his condition, he has not yet been questioned, police added.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said her investigation had revealed no previous contact between the man and police.

Footage shared on social media showed a man with a long knife in Laing Close.

Lt Col Stuart Bell acknowledged there would be an “understandable desire for answers and an explanation as to what happened” and that officers were working to “establish the full facts”.

Ch Supt Bell said the two Met officers suffered wounds which required surgery.

He described the officers’ stab wounds as “significant” but not life-threatening.

The injuries to the other two people were also “not life-threatening”.

Ch Supt Bell said police did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the general public and they were not looking for any further suspects.

He added that he did not believe it was a terrorist attack or a “targeted” attack.

Witness James Fernando said he saw the suspect ask one of his neighbors to take his phone and “tell whoever was on the phone his location.”

The 39-year-old said the neighbor soon noticed the sword and ran away.

As she fled, the woman called out to another neighbor, a boy on his way to school, who was then struck by the attacker when he turned around, he said.

“I brought him down.”

Another eyewitness, Chris Bates, who lives in Thurlow Gardens, said he saw the suspect running around the area.

“He ran through the gardens and came into the street next to the house next to me,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The police were there. Then he ran down two doors and tried to climb some kind of scaffolding and they insulted him and chased him down.”

Manpreet Singh, who also witnessed the attack, told BBC Radio 5 Live he was walking out of an office when he “heard chaos” across the street.

“I saw a group of people, five or six, trying to fight off a guy – he had a sword in his hand,” he said.

“About seven or eight police cars pulled onto the road and after another ten minutes I saw the man running towards the station and pulling into the road opposite the station.

“He tried to get into one of the houses but couldn’t and was verbally abused as a result.”

Hainault London Underground station was closed during the incident and local buses were diverted.

Ch Supt Bell said the boy’s family was being supported by professionals at this “unimaginably difficult time”.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “I certainly speak for the whole city when I say our thoughts are with this little child and his family.”

He said more uniformed officers would be in the area in the coming days and urged Hainault residents to forward any footage recorded on phones or doorbell cameras to police.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the incident as “shocking” and added: “Such violence has no place on our streets.”

“Bold reaction”

Wes Streeting, the MP for Ilford North, said the community was “devastated by the heartbreaking news”.

He thanked the emergency services for their “courageous response” and described the officers who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others as “the best of us”.

Rick Prior, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the attack was a “sad reminder” of the dangers officers face to keep Londoners safe.

“People who attack our profession and the difficult and dynamic decisions officers face every hour often forget that we work with heroes whose courage is incredible,” he said.

The Metropolitan Police corrected the boy’s age to 14, after previously saying he was 13.

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