London’s Metropolitan Police said Zakaria Bulhan, of London, was charged with the murder of 64-year-old Darlene Horton, and five counts of attempted murder. No further details of the victims were immediately available.
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The attacker, a Norwegian citizen of Somali origin, is believed to have mental health issues.
Shyam Sanghani, who runs a shop opposite the scene of the attack, told BBC: “We had more police announced yesterday and then this today, it’s scary”.
Police said there was no evidence the attack was terrorism related and evidence to date pointed to it being triggered by mental health issues.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the attack as a “horrific mass stabbing”, and said he grieves for the victims.
The statement said one man was arrested and that a police officer used a Taser stun gun. Detectives from the force’s murder and terrorism squads interviewed the suspect, his family and witnesses and searched properties, and found no evidence of radicalization, Rowley said. Following the Paris attacks a year ago, Hogan-Howe chose to increase the number of armed police in London from the existing 2,200.
“We came around the corner and there were armed police everywhere … a massive police presence … and a corpse lying in the street covered in a blanket”, the man, who gave his name as Paul, said. She was declared dead at the scene. London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the swift police reaction saying they were doing an “increasingly hard job”, the BBC reported.
The woman who fell to the stabbing attack was an American national, Rowley said, adding that those injured were Australian, American, Israeli and British nationals.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters the one woman killed in the attack in central London’s Russell Square late Wednesday was a United States national.
The arrested man is now in police custody in hospital.
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Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service said the suspect, who has not been named, had emigrated from Norway in 2002.
