One person dead, 5 injured in knife attack, in the centre of London

"Police were called at 22:33 hours on Wednesday, 3 August to reports of a man seen in possession of a knife injuring people at Russell Square, WC1,”

"Officers are currently on scene at #RussellSquare. Up to six people injured and one person has died. A man has been detained and arrested by police #RussellSquare," Metropolitan police said on its official Twitter account.

A number of policemen were deployed to the scene, it said, adding: "Terrorism is one possibility being explored at this stage."

https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk

***

Scotland Yard said no evidence has been found of radicalisation or anything to suggest Bulhan was

"in any way motivated by terrorism".

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said:

"Whilst the investigation is not yet complete, all of the work we have done so far increasingly points to this tragic incident as having been triggered by mental-health issues.

"At this time, we believe this was a spontaneous attack and that the victims were selected at random."

Five other people were injured in last night’s attack, including a British man who was stabbed in the stomach. He is still in hospital where his condition is described as serious but stable.

Four others who were also injured were released from hospital today.

More: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/russell-square-stabbings-face-of-tooting-teenager-zakaria-bulhan-suspected-of-london-knife-rampage-a3312401.html

***

Scotland Yard believe Zakaria Bulhan, 19, a Norwegian national of Somali origin who moved to the UK in 2002, was not ‘motivated by terrorism’ but its officers are trawling his possessions for extremist material.

But neighbour Parmjit Singh, a BBC radio DJ known as ‘DJ Precious’ on the Asian network, said he had known ‘impressionable’ Bulhan for seven years, adding:

‘They said he had mental health issues but that was not the boy I knew.

‘The news of his mental illness is completely new, we never heard that. Honestly, I think his mental health problems are a scapegoat.’

Asked what he thought motivated the attack, Parmjit said:

‘I think peer pressure, hanging around with gangs. He wasn’t working, he was hanging around with Somalian boys and I think they had possible links to serious ISIS people – not directly, but they see all this stuff and are inspired by it.'

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/london-knifeman-was-devout-muslim-neighbor-says-had-no-mental-problems