A USA national was killed and five people injured Wednesday evening after a knife-wielding man attacked bystanders in Central London, according to CNN.
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Rowley said the woman killed was an American citizen.
The other four victims – an American man, an Australian woman, an Australian man and an Israeli woman, also suffered stab wounds but have since been discharged.
“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 inquiry for us to explore”, he added.
-London Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said that evidence collected so far “increasingly points” to the attack being “triggered by mental health issues”. The attacker injured five other people, all but one of them now out of the hospital.
According to officials, a 19-year-old Norweigian national of Somali ancestry was arrested in Bedford Place, close to Russell Square.
The university said FSU professor Richard Wagner was in London to teach a summer session that has since concluded.
Norwegian police confirmed that the suspect is a Norwegian citizen who was “registered as having emigrated from Norway in 2002”.
A police officers stands watch by the forensics tent set up next to the park in Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum.
The man arrested was neutralised by a taser gun soon after the police were called by members of the public around 2230 GMT on Wednesday (0400 IST Thursday).
Police said Thursday that it wasn’t terrorism – but in a city on edge after a summer of attacks elsewhere in Europe, both authorities and London residents initially responded as if it were. The suspect was taken to a south London police station after receiving treatment in hospital. Police have said they believe the victims were selected at random.
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the swift police reaction saying they were doing an “increasingly hard job”, the BBC reported.
