British police say they have arrested a man after a stabbing in London’s Leicester Square, which left an 11-year-old girl needing hospital treatment and a 34-year-old woman with minor injuries.
The police said that the incident in the central London square, an area popular with tourists, was not being treated as terror-related.
The UK’s police forces remain on high alert after days of riots earlier this month, which were triggered by online posts wrongly identifying a suspected killer of three girls in northern England as an Islamist migrant.
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The injuries of the 11-year-old victim were not life-threatening, the police said, adding that she was being treated in hospital.
There were no other outstanding suspects, police said.
A witness said the suspect in the attack was a young, white, skinny male wearing a black T-shirt and jeans.
The witness, who gave his name as Desmond, 45, said the attacker focused the attack on the girl, putting her in a headlock and stabbing her.
Desmond, 45, who performs as Darth Vader on the square “every day,” told reporters: “When I looked to my side I saw a young man … was stabbing her several (times) with a knife.
“Before I could jump down to go (over there), two guys were just passing, and they grabbed him, they put him on the ground, and immediately the police came. I think the woman was also stabbed once but the child was the most targeted, he was stabbing the child several times. Police held him and stood him up and cuffed him.”
Desmond said the woman and girl appeared to be family or known to each other as they had been together before the attack happened.
He added: “It was so terrible, I’ve never seen a thing like that. I was heartbroken, I saw the woman was screaming with all her strength.”
– with PA