Saturday night turned into a horror movie at London’s Leytonstone underground station as an attacker slashed a person’s throat while shouting “this is for Syria”.
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A stabbing at a London Underground station is being treated as “terrorist incident”, the London police say.
“The male suspect was reportedly threatening other people with a knife”, Scotland Yard police headquarters said.
A man was arrested, and he remains in custody.
A police spokesman did not confirm a Sky News report that the suspect shouted “this is for Syria” during the attack.
One man suffered serious knife injuries while two other people have sustained minor injuries.
Britain is on its second-highest alert level of “severe”, meaning a militant attack is considered highly likely.
Witness Michael Garcia, 24, a financial analyst from Leytonstone, said he had seen “a guy, an adult, lying on the floor with a guy standing next to him brandishing a knife of about three inches (7.5cm)”, the BBC reported.
They said the most seriously-hurt victim’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. He was pacing back and forth next to the guy on the floor.
One man at the scene then shouted at the suspect: “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv!”
Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said: “We await the the full facts on this shocking incident and in the meantime the union repeats its call for a London transport safety summit in light of the job cuts programme, the current security status and the intolerable pressure on staff and services”.
Videos show some people in the tube station hurrying away when they realise a knife attacker is on the loose, while others take out phones and make video recordings and take photos.
The Tube station shopkeeper Salim, who saw the attack unfold, told LBC radio: “I just hear the screaming and shouting and I thought, usually drunken people do that, but the victim was shouting “Somebody help, somebody help”.
As The Guardian reports, the phrase has been picked up on Twitter by users who “say it is the ideal riposte to attempts to spread violence and terror in London – disowning and sidelining the attacker. We are monitoring the situation closely as further details emerge”.
“That summit should involve the unions, TFL, the BTP, the train companies and Network Rail”.
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Asked about how the local community is reacting to the attack, he said: “The reaction is one of shock, but at the same time people are determined not to allow something like this to affect their daily lives and the functioning of the community, which is a peaceful and pretty happy place to be”.
