Chilling pictures show desperate battle to save Russell Square victim – as eyewitnesses tell of knife terror
American woman's last words were 'he's still here'
WITNESSES have described the terrifying moment that a knifeman stabbed an American woman to death and injured five others in an attack in London last night.
A woman in her 60s was knifed to death and five others injured during a bloodbath attack in Russell Square that cops believe may be terror-related.
Three men and two women were also injured in the horrific mass stabbing near the capital’s Imperial Hotel. London police confirmed on Twitter this morning three of them have now been discharged from hospital.
A 19-year-old man was arrested at the scene after being tasered by police in Russell Square – just yards from where the 7/7 terror attack bombs detonated in 2005.
The man was hit by a taser outside the Clarendon Hotel after running away down Bedford Place.
Police sources confirmed the attacker was a Norwegian of Somali descent and has shown no signs of radicalisation. They said mental health was a likely factor.
The Norwegian foreign office confirmed the suspect emigrated to the UK from the Scandinavian country in 2002 when he was five.
The killed woman has been confirmed as an American while the injured were British, Australian, Israeli and another American.
Witnesses reported her last words as being: “He’s still here, he’s still here.”
Witnesses described victims “screaming and covered in blood” following the rampage in which the woman – believed to be enjoying a hen do – was brutally knifed around 10.30pm last night.
A worker at the nearby Royal National Hotel in Bedford Way told the : “The police came to the hotel and a guest was telling them what he saw.
“He said there was a madman running around with a knife just lunging at people randomly and stabbing them. People didn’t realise what was happening until they saw the knife, then everyone ran.
“It was all over very quickly, in a matter of minutes. I don’t know if he was crazy or why he did it. He was just going for anyone he could see.
Emma Pigdon, 40, had been to the theatre with her husband Mark, also 40. The couple, visiting from Durham, had been celebrating their birthday.
Teaching assistant Emma said: “We were on our way back from the theatre when we saw a woman being worked on by the emergency services.
“I couldn't tell if she was wearing a patterned dress or if it was blood. She looked so tiny I thought she was a teenager.
“We went to get a coffee and when we came back she was covered by a sheet. There was also a guy leaning against railings with his top off. He had a bandage around his lower chest.”
I don’t know if he was crazy or why he did it. He was just going for anyone he could see.
Witness
Manuel Simo, 32, a supervisor at the hotel added: “Apparently he was just stabbing people randomly – it’s horrible. People ran away in the direction of the British Museum.
“People are scared to go out in the street. They don’t want to go to the shop to buy water or food. It’s very sad.”
Fay and Ken Clegg were walking back from Shaftesbury Theatre at around the time of the attack.
The couple - visiting London from the Midlands - were in their hotel
bar when they saw blue flashing lights.
Mr Clegg said: "We saw what we thought were blue flashing lights. The bar was absolutely packed but we didn't know what was happening just outside.
"It's shocking to think it happened so close. We must have just missed it."
A 19-year-old man was arrested at the scene after being tasered by police in Russell Square as officers yelled: "Put it down."
The horrific incident happened just yards from where one of the 7/7 terror attack bombs detonated in 2005.
Witnesses described seeing armed police flood the area in the wake of the attack and officers established a large cordon to seal off the square where a forensics tent was later seen.
A man named Fernando was cycling home when he saw the carnage. He said a Spanish family of four – a mother, father and their two daughters thought to be in their 20s – were looking after the woman who is believed to have died at the scene.
What we know so far about the Russell Square stabbings:
- A 19-year-old Norwegian man of Somali descent attacked six people with a knife in central London's Russell Square at around 10.30pm last night
- Detectives could see no evidence that he had been radicalised
- An American woman in her 60s was killed and another five injured. Two remain in hospital.
- The five injured hail from Britain, Australia, Israel and the USA.
- The attacker has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held at a South London police station.
- Police confirmed they were not ruling out the incident being terror-related and said they believed mental health was a key factor.
Fernando, 40, a paralegal from Brazil, said: "I was cycling by and people screamed at me to stop. It was a Spanish family who approached me.
"It was a mother and father and two sisters. Then I saw a white lady, in her sixties, slumped against the railings.
"She had her head in a Spanish woman's lap, the lady, who was trying to keep her alive by talking to her.
"They were not related, I think the Spanish family were just passing by.
"She had been stabbed in the back. She was bleeding. There was an English man who was white, I'd say around 45. He had been stabbed in the side.
"Then there was another lady. I didn't know her nationality but I think she was white. She was in her twenties. She had been stabbed in her arm.
"The old lady had been stabbed in the back. The lady from the Spanish family told me that the guy had passed by, running, stabbing people."
Hotel guest Chanel Britton, 19, of Barnsley, caught the action on her mobile phone.
She told The Sun: “We had just got back and were sat having a drink at the window. Then we saw this man run down the street followed by police with their guns out.
“I went out and they shouted ‘get down’ but he carried on running. They shot him with a taser and he fell to the ground.
“He was a black man in a white t-shirt. They were on the floor for about 40 minutes.
“There was a lot of screaming.”
“She was being cradled in the lap of a Spanish tourist who was trying to keep her alive. I didn’t hear the old woman speak – she had been stabbed in the back,” he said.
A witness, who used towels bought on an earlier shopping trip to stem the flow of blood, told the publication: “I was just trying to console her – I was trying to help her. The victim said something about: "He’s still here, he’s still here" - after that she was not lucid. That’s when I saw someone. He was meandering about. He was very disturbed”.
One woman described seeing a man in motorcycle gear and with a helmet on top of his head near the scene.
Philippa Baglee, who was in London to celebrate her 60th birthday, was walking past Russell Square when she saw a group of people looking down at the ground.
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She said: "There was someone lying on the ground and lots of people around and a guy with a black motorcycle helmet balanced on top of his head walking around.
"He was on the outside of everyone looking on the ground.
"The moment I saw an ambulance and police car arrive, I thought someone had just been knocked off their bike."
Asked to describe the man, she said he was short and dressed in what she thought was all black leathers.
She continued: "It was all very calm. No-one was panicking. I just went back in."
Ms Baglee added that she did not find out what had happened until Thursday morning.
"It's a bit scary, I have just come for a couple of nights for my 60th."
A witness, who gave his name as Michael, said he saw who he believes was the victim bleeding from her back while a friend who had also been stabbed was comforting her, reports .
He said: “I thank God I wasn't there - 30 seconds more and I may be dead.
“I heard a scream, and then we went to the park and I saw a girl lying on the floor with blood coming from her back. Another girl had blood on her arm.
“The two women were with two men who were shouting 'tío lo vi todo' in Spanish, meaning 'I saw everything'.
“They all spoke Spanish so I guess they were a group. I only saw the victim and the girl with the arm stabbed from that group
“I just saw blood just next to her. She was lying on the floor with a friend hugging her.”
According to the , the attack took place metres away from a floral tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox, with a sign reading "Lest London forgets Jo Cox MP for Yorkshire”.
A group of tourists who witnessed the incident sought safety by hiding in a nearby Tesco Express. One staff member told the newspaper: "We didn't know what had happened. They came in here and said a man appeared to be chasing a woman and stabbed her and then started stabbing people. They initially thought it was a mugging."
Local shop owner Shyam Sanhani said: “It is really scary – especially given all the images of the police which were released just yesterday.
“I was here for 7/7. That was scary and now this.”
Paul Hutchinson, a taxi driver, who passed the scene of the brutal stabbing shortly after it occurred, said: “I drove past Russell Square and the road wasn't shut but the pavement was all taped off by police, lots of armed police, lots of cars and the body was just lying on the floor.
“You could see the boots sticking out from under the cloth.
“Loads of armed police, cars with lights on and the body on the floor.”
Witnesses said the attacker was chubby, had been wearing black shorts and a white t-shirt and that he left with the knife, which he carried in his right hand.
Eyewitness Zuhair Awartani told the BBC he saw the attacker being arrested.
He said: “I arrived here at my hotel and I saw the guy getting arrested just on the block. There were two police cars and he was like African - a dark-skinned man”.
Pol O'Geibheannigh, 45, who was walking back from the cinema when he saw a massive police presence and a woman lying in a pool of blood told the publication: "I just knew right away that this is not right. You just don't see armed police around this area.
"This was just wall to wall with armed police.
"She was lying in a pool of blood with a red blanket on top of her. I went into the bar and it wasn't until an hour later that they put the tent up.
"And then at about 12.30, when we were coming out, there were about five or six people running off towards Bedford Square.
"That level of police presence I haven't seen since 7/7 and I was here - I live around the corner. But it was just a matter of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Rehana Azam, 42, a national secretary public services at the GMB Union, was staying at the Imperial Hotel when the incident happened.
Rehana, of Darlington, South Yorkshire, said: "I was in my room on the seventh floor when I heard sirens outside.
"I looked out my window and thought somebody had collapsed and saw a paramedic performing CPR on the person on the ground.
"But then it became clear the person being treated for CPR had died as they put a blanket over them.
"I saw another person - who I think was a male - being taken into an ambulance on a stretcher. It was awful.
"A police officer and a paramedic were comforting someone who was very distressed, it could have been a family member of the victim. They were very upset."
Helen Edwards, 31, said the panic reminded her of the 7/7 attacks. She was woken by the bomb that went off on a bus at Tavistock Square that day.
Tommaso Greco, 26, who works in the Pret cafe opposite the scene, told the Daily Telegraph: "I am quite shocked because I used to come here every day at 5am and every day it is quiet. This morning I came, and no.
"I am a little bit worried, for sure. Because it could happen to anyone. They were just in the middle of the street. And here, generally, there are a lot of people. It is a tourist area."
He added that staff at the coffee shop had initially been told that it would not open today, but that the instructions later changed.
Following the attack additional police units have been deployed in the area – and extra armed officers posted across London.
Anti-terror chief Mark Rowley, a Met Police Assistant Commissioner, said earlier today that "mental health was a significant factor" in the attack but that "terrorism was still a line of enquiry".
Speaking outside Scotland Yard, Commander Rowley said: “Police were called just after 10.30pm last night to reports of a man, armed with a knife, assaulting people in Russell Square, Camden.
“Armed officers arrived at the scene within five minutes, they discharged the Taser whilst confronting and arresting the suspect.
“Six people have been injured, including the one woman who sadly died at the scene, and the others have received various injuries.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged people to remain "calm and vigilant".
He added: “Early indications suggest that mental health is a significant factor in this case and that is one major line of inquiry.
“But of course at this stage we should keep an open mind regarding motive and, consequently, terrorism as a motivation remains but one line of enquiry for us to explore.”
A newly-formed unit comprised of heavily-armed anti-terror police was unveiled to respond quickly to lone-wolf terror attacks.
On Sunday Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe warned that a terror attack in the UK was a case of "when, not if".
