Hainault sword attack: police hunt for motive

Detectives are investigating why a man armed with a samurai sword went on a deadly rampage in northeast London.

A 14-year-old schoolboy was killed and four other people were wounded in an apparently random attack in Hainault early yesterday morning. Two of those injured were police officers, one who "suffered a badly damaged hand" and a female officer who "needed her arm 'put back together'", the BBC reported.

The suspect, who was Tasered and arrested near the scene, is being treated in hospital for injuries he sustained when his van collided with a building just prior to the attack. Detectives have not yet been able to interview him.

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Counter Terrorism Police have said the incident is not being treated as terrorist related and confirmed that the suspect's mental health history is a key line of inquiry.

"If the police hunches are correct", said The Guardian's social policy editor Patrick Butler, the tragedy would be the latest in a series calling into question the "adequacy of mental health treatment" in Britain. The murder rate has fallen in recent years, but "there has been a rise in the proportion" of perpetrators diagnosed with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said violence of the kind seen in Hainault yesterday "has no place on our streets", while a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said the king's "thoughts and prayers are with all those affected, in particular the family of the young victim who has lost his life".

The attack came as new figures show knife crime in London has hit a record high, said The Telegraph, "overtaking the previous peak in 2019, when there was also a surge in murders". 

It also took place just ahead of tomorrow's mayoral election in which "violence in London is expected to be a key issue as Sadiq Khan's record comes under scrutiny".