A man sustained non-life threatening injuries in a stabbing near Britain’s Home Office in London’s government district of Westminster yesterday afternoon, police confirmed.
Ambulance services said they attended to the man at the scene and he was taken to a trauma centre for further treatment.
One man had been taken into custody near the incident, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
“All my thoughts are with the victim and their family following horrific unprovoked knife attack on Marsham Street,” Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted.
Britain has witnessed rising knife crime across the country in the past year.
Yesterday, police also said a murder investigation has been launched into a separate fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old man in the southern London borough of Lambeth.
“Knives have no place on our streets. Violence has no place on our streets,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted, adding that police were working to “remove weapons and catch offenders and keep all Londoners safe.”
The victim in Westminster was a man in his 60s, police said, adding that his family had been notified.
A 29-year-old man was taken into custody a few blocks away in Smith Square, arrested “on suspicion of grievous bodily harm” and possession of a tear gas spray.
Police said they were still reviewing the “exact circumstances” and cause of the incident and “keeping an open mind about any possible motive at this early stage.”
Witnesses said the victim entered the Home Office seeking help after the attack, temporarily putting the building on lockdown, the Press Association news agency reported.
One witness told the agency the man then exited the ministry escorted by paramedics with “quite a bloodied face and with dressing pressed into his face.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week promised 20,000 more police officers on the streets and additional stop-and-search powers in order for police to “come down hard on crime.”
Patel on Wednesday said she would do “everything in my power to stop (knife crime) traumatising communities.”
Police officers inspect items, including a bag and a sheathed knife, at the former parish church of St John’s Smith Square in central London following the arrest of a suspect in connection with a stabbing incident outside the nearby Home Office building.
