A crazed lunatic went on a knife-stabbing rampage in London’s Russell Square — and tragically, two Americans were among his victims, one of whom died of her terrible injuries.
The man who stabbed, killed and injured six people is a Norwegian of Somali origin, police said Thursday. While they said they have found no signs of radicalization as a motive yet, “terrorism is one possibility being explored at this stage.” Police later added: “Early indications are that mental health is a significant factor.”
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the woman who died was American, and the five injured people are British, American, Israeli and Australian. None of the wounded had life-threatening injuries. Two remain in a hospital, while three others have been discharged.
Rowley said it appeared to be a “spontaneous attack and that the victims were selected at random.” Detectives from the force’s murder and terrorism squads interviewed the suspect, his family and witnesses and searched several properties, and found no evidence of radicalization, he said.
Police put more officers on London streets after the incident, which came just days after authorities had warned the public to be vigilant in light of attacks inspired by the Islamic State group elsewhere in Europe.
Police said they received “numerous” calls from members of the public at around 10:30 p.m. local time Wednesday about a maniac attacking people with a knife in the streets around Russell Square, a busy central area full of students and tourists.
Officers used a stun gun to subdue a 19-year-old suspect, who was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Helen Edwards, 33, who lives in the area, came out for a walk late Wednesday and found armed police near a subway station. In a city with vivid memories of the July 7, 2005, attacks on public transport – two of which struck near Russell Square – she immediately suspected that an attack had occurred.
“There is always that thing in the back of your mind,” she said. “You live with that threat of terrorism or other crimes in the back of your mind. It wasn’t a huge shock I guess.”
Ellie Cattle, 21, a student staying in a hotel near the square, said she heard police shouting: “‘Put it down, put it down!’
“Then I heard what sounded like a gunshot, but it must have been the Taser,” she said. “After that they just stopped shouting. I didn’t hear any screams from anyone.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged the public to keep calm and remain vigilant, and encouraged people to be the first line of defense against any form of attack.
“We all have a vital role to play as eyes and ears for our police and security services and in helping to ensure London is protected,” he said.
Knives are the most common murder weapon in Britain, which has strict gun-control laws. There were 186 knife killings in the year to March 2015, according to government statistics – a third of all murders.
In the last three years London has seen two knife attacks by people inspired by radical Islam. In May 2013, two al-Qaida-inspired London men killed off-duty soldier Lee Rigby in the street near his barracks. In January, mentally ill Muhiddin Mire tried to behead a London Underground passenger, shouting that he was doing it “for Syria.”
The Russell Square incident came within hours of an announcement by London police that they were putting more armed officers on the streets. The idea was to sustain public confidence following attacks by Islamic State-inspired groups in Europe.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Yet, those mindless, clueless politically correct Europeans in their newspapers state that Mr. Trump is the enemy of civilization. I hope Trump wins and makes Europe pay more for their own defense.
Trump can not win unless he chnges his mo and actually listens to his advisors.He is a narcissist and is more concerned with schoolyard rwtaluation rather than gettinfg out his message and attacking Clinton on facts related to running the government.Trump still believes he is running a campaign to replace Don Rickles rather than Oshitface.Without areal change he will lose in a landslide and then blame Ted Cruz(who could have easily demolished the lying and weak Clinton.)
Hey all you black lives matter..white
Lives matter..asian lives matter..
Hispanic lives matter..get this..
No lives matter to isis. They are the
Dreggs of humanity. And hillary
Wants to open up our country’s
Generosity to these people..who train
Six and seven year old kids to kill..
Especially americans. Think you’re
Brave to go anywhere after isis strikes..
Think again. You should always keep
your eyes open. These people are worse
Than any serial killer..they feed off fear and
Destruction. They tear down and
Destroy. They’re killerS who kill for
Pleasure…keep hillary out
PUT TRUMP IN OFFICE AS
PRESIDENT
You state: “they feed off fear and Destruction”, but your message sounds like you are passing “fear and Destruction” on to everyone else.
Yes the attacker was but yet another Muslim – but PC Crap in the U.K. says this is nothing to do with Militant Islam ? The British Government is as bad as Obama’s for whitewashing the obvious.
And the hell those Brits know the butcher wasn’t a dammed jihadist/terrorist? What has this world come to!!!
They are now babbling on about mental illness being the culprit as they have found nothing in his home that would say
ISIS is responsible. OMG He was doing exactly what ISIS has called on their followers to do. He doesnt need a
HOW TO list lying around. Its either mental illness or lone wolf & Lone Wolfs are another thing ISIS wants
The British & German Press are Suppressing the truth and in many instances they will not release the name
as it is too telling. The Munich McDonalds shooter was called David S. Real name ALI DAVID SONBOLY
They refused to release the name of the German Cinema gunman other than Sabino M. of course it was Mental illness
Just watch. Its either Lone Wolf or Mental Illness NOT RADICAL ISLAM how else can they justify the influx of
all those immigrants. Merkel has almost silenced the press & police. We know that she has shut down German Facebook if
there is a mention of immigrant wrong doing
When will the German people show some gumption? Are modern Germans now lapdogs? Maybe, since they don’t even have the will to procreate–immigrants are needed to make up for German population decline.
These Islamic immigrants are clever in pretending to be mentally affected. Then why should they migrate to Norway and then to England. I am of the view that these Islamic immigrants are receiving orders from the Caliphate at regular intervals. There is a limit to tolerance. Beheading, cutting the limbs, etc are all executed through knives. Recently a Catholic Priest in a Church in France was killed with a knife. Damn these barbaric ideologies. Islam is not a religion but a cult intend to place other Faiths in pieces. Certainly it is not a religion of Peace.
Saudi Arabia takes in none of their co-religionists.
What do you expect. Isn’t London’s mayor a Muslim? Of course, he will protect his own. They’ll blame it on mental illness.
Just like Obo is doing.
Oh well just another killing, getting to be old news, sad but true.
Like Hillary says what difference does it make
Trump for president
Another interesting article states that there is a kill list for Britain & American Christians, 15,000 named
pastors & their wives & church officials taken from internet search of church directories and most HAVE
NOT BEEN ALERTED by the governments. They want ISIS followers to take them out Lone Wolf or otherwise
Soft targets. Main states were New York, Texas, Florida, & California. These are sad scary times
I agree that Muslims are mentally ill in many of their delusional beliefs, especially that Muslim men are religiously and legally allowed to brutalize, control and kill their family members and non-Muslims for almost any excuse, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t an act of terror. What most western cultures would consider mental illness is just everyday life for Muslim men in the Middle East, a cultural norm. So, don’t call it mental illness and ignore the elephant in the room that these are acts of terrorism designed to bring the western world into subjugation to Islam. What IS mental illness is failing to protect citizens of a western culture country like England because of political correctness and willful blindness to terrorism. In the U.S., it’s becoming increasingly clear that our political leaders are receiving large sums of money from countries like Saudi Arabia to look the other way as they take us over from within. If they honestly believe that they won’t suffer the price along with the rest of the country, they truly are mentally ill.
ISIS (Socialism/Progressivism/Liberalism) is a mental illness that needs to be observed, scrutinized, evaluated, reviewed, analyzed, profiled…like Nazism, Fascism and Communism.
and then eliminated…
better word…
TERMINATED…WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!
Oh…and BTW…Mayor Khan needs to…GO!
All Jihadiis are mentally ill! They all suffer from narcissism.