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American woman killed in London stabbing attack

Horton and five other people were attacked by a knife-wielding 19-year-old man in Russell Square.

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According to the London Metropolitan Police, the young attacker was arrested at 10.39 p.m. on Wednesday night after an officer fired a taser gun at him, BBC reported.

One woman in her 60s was pronounced dead at the scene, which is opposite the Imperial Hotel and near to the British Museum and UCL’s main campus.

A Taser is a less-lethal single shot weapon created to temporarily incapacitate a suspect through the use of an electrical current, according to the Metropolitan Police website. “At this time we believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random”. There was no evidence of radicalization or terrorism motivation, Rowley said.

“We ask the public to remain calm, aware and alert”.

“So far we have found no evidence of radicalisation or anything that would suggest the man in our custody was motivated by terrorism”, Assistant police commissioner Mark Rowley said.

The unnamed woman – an American national – died in the attack while four others including a British man, an American man, an Australian man, an Australian woman and an Israeli woman were injured and needed hospital treatment.

Two Australians have been released from a London hospital after being injured in the Russell Square stabbing attack that left a U.S. woman dead. Two women and three men suffered “various injuries” in the incident in central London.

The DFAT spokesperson said a second Australian woman was also at the scene of the attack but was not injured. The operation is meant to up security with an additional 600 officers patrolling in London to protect against any potential terror attack.

Earlier Wednesday, Metropolitan Police announced there would be an increased presence of armed officers on the streets in response to attacks in Europe by groups inspired by the Islamic State.

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Police initially considered the stabbings a potential terrorist attack.

A police forensic officer works in Russell Square in London early on Aug. 4 2016 after a knife attack in which a woman in her 60s was killed. /AFP