A woman is in police custody after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden, central London, in an attack that officers are treating as a suspected mental health-related incident.
The 47-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene on Endell Street after the incident, which happened around lunchtime. The Metropolitan Police said the victims, aged 34, 39, 42 and 52, were found with stab wounds and were taken to a major trauma centre for emergency treatment. In a social media update, the force later confirmed that two of the four men had been discharged from hospital.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of assault and possession of an offensive weapon. She was detained at the scene and remains in custody, with police saying that inquiries are continuing.
The stabbing prompted a large emergency response in the busy shopping and entertainment district of Covent Garden. An air ambulance landed on Trafalgar Square while police officers and paramedics converged on Endell Street. The presence of emergency vehicles attracted attention in an area that is normally busy at lunchtime with shoppers, office workers and visitors, and the scale of the response was a sign of how seriously the attack was being treated.
Staff at 2 Chairs Grooming Room, a barber shop in the immediate vicinity, described how one of the victims ran into the shop and removed his shirt, exposing a large gash on his back. Their account provided some of the first details of the violence that had taken place on the street outside and illustrated how quickly the incident affected nearby businesses.
It is not yet clear how the woman and her alleged victims came to be in the same place, and police have not described the events immediately before the attack. The investigation continues as officers work to establish the full sequence of events.
Police have not released any further information about the condition of the two men who remain in hospital, and the type of weapon used has not been disclosed. No motive has been confirmed, although the force has indicated that it believes the attack may have a mental health-related element. The woman held in connection with the stabbings has not been named and is still being questioned while the investigation continues.
Endell Street, where the stabbings occurred, runs through the heart of Covent Garden, one of London’s best-known shopping and entertainment areas. The timing of the attack, in the middle of the day, means it is likely to heighten concern about violent incidents in busy public spaces across the capital.
