As the United Kingdom enters into a period of calm after massive anti-immigrants riots across the country, an 11-year-old girl was stabbed in London’s Leicester Square on Monday (August 12) in which she was seriously injured, the police said in a statement. A man was arrested at the scene of the attack. The police, however, said that they did not believe the stabbing was terror-related.
The girl’s mother, 34, also sustained minor injuries during the incident which occurred in the busy central London area, popular among tourists. The child’s injuries were not life threatening, the police added.
A 32-year-old man was swiftly arrested and officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attack.
"An urgent investigation is now ongoing and detectives are working to establish the details around exactly what happened," the police said. "At this stage we don't believe the suspect and the victims were known to each other."
Britain's police forces remain on high alert after days of riots earlier this month, which were triggered by false online posts wrongly identifying the suspected killer of three girls in northern England as an Islamist migrant.
Anti-immigrants riots in the UK
Britain's King Charles III ended his silence on the violent far-right protests across the United Kingdom that targeted the Muslim community and migrants, calling for mutual respect and understanding while thanking the police for their efforts to restore, according to a Buckingham Palace on Friday. The UK has entered into a period of calm after riots broke out following a knife attack in Southport that killed three girls.
The spokesperson said the King thanked police and emergency services for their efforts to restore peace and welcomed the way that community groups had countered "the aggression and criminality from a few... It remains His Majesty's hope that shared values of mutual respect and understanding will continue to strengthen and unite the nation". The monarch also held telephonic talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and police chiefs.
The violence erupted after social media posts said the suspected attacker in Southport, who fatally stabbed three girls and injured 10 others, was a radical Islamist who had just arrived in Britain and was known to intelligence services. However, police said the 17-year-old suspect was born in Britain and they are not treating it as a terrorist incident. The suspect's parents had moved to Britain from Rwanda.
(With Reuters inputs)
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