An 11-year-old girl was allegedly stabbed in what investigators have called a "horrific" and seemingly random attack at a popular London tourist site.
The juvenile victim suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries Monday morning in Leicester Square, according to the UK's Metropolitan Police Department. The girl's 34-year-old mother was also non-fatally injured in the attack.
Authorities arrested an unidentified 32-year-old male suspect on the scene.
"I would like to pay tribute to the members of the public, including staff from local businesses, who bravely intervened in this incident," Det. Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah said in a statement. "They put themselves at risk and showed the best of London in doing so. I must also recognize the efforts of our officers who quickly arrived on scene and provided first aid to the victims until colleagues from LAS (London Ambulance Service) arrived."
"An urgent investigation is now ongoing and detectives are working to establish the details around exactly what happened," she continued. "At this stage we don't believe the suspect and the victims were known to each other."
"While we continue to work to establish the suspect's motive, at this stage there is nothing to indicate the attack was terror-related," Jessah assured
News of the incident comes nearly two weeks after three girls between the ages of 6 and 9 were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift dance-themed workshop in the seaside town of Southport, England.
Eight other children and two adults were also injured in the attack.
