A security guard intervened to disarm an attacker who had stabbed an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman in London’s Leicester Square, a popular tourist area.
The incident occurred on Monday morning, and Westminster Police have arrested a man suspected of carrying out the attack.
Abdullah, a 29-year-old security guard, was working at a nearby tea shop when he heard a scream and witnessed the assault. He described how he confronted the attacker, restrained him, and removed the knife from his hand. Two other individuals assisted him in holding down the attacker until police arrived to take him into custody.
Abdullah and the other bystanders provided first aid to the victims until the police took over. He expressed that his primary motivation was to help the girl in distress, stating, “I just saw a kid getting stabbed and I just tried to save her. It’s my duty to just save them.”
The London Ambulance Service responded to the scene at around 11:36 a.m. (6:36 a.m. ET) and transported the victims to a major trauma center. The 11-year-old girl’s injuries are not life-threatening, but she will need hospital treatment, while the woman sustained less severe injuries.
Westminster Police have indicated that there is currently no evidence linking the incident to terrorism. This comes amid heightened vigilance in the UK following recent far-right riots fueled by misinformation about a separate stabbing incident in northern England.
A recent report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) highlighted that violence against women and girls in England and Wales has reached “epidemic levels.”