Hainault: man arrested on suspicion of murder after 14-year-old boy dies in east London sword attack – latest updates | London

The suspect in the Hainult incident is in hospital after sustaining “injuries” when his van collided with a building, the Met assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe said.

The Metropolitan police is expected to give another update to the media at about 16:00, after this morning’s attack in Hainault, according to BBC News.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson has said King Charles’s thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the Hainault attack, especially the family of the 14-year-old boy who was killed.

He has asked to be kept “fully informed” of the incident as new details come to light.

In a statement, the spokesperson said:

Following the horrific scenes in Hainault this morning, the King has asked to be kept fully informed as details of the incident become clearer.

His thoughts and prayers are with all those affected – in particular, the family of the young victim who has lost his life – and he salutes the courage of the emergency services who helped contain the situation.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has urged residents in Hainault to pass on any footage recorded on phones or doorbells to the police.

Khan said:

The key message to local residents is if they have recorded on their doorbell or on their phone anything that happened please pass it on to the police.

The police have confirmed they are not looking for anybody else. They have confirmed their is no ongoing wider threat to the community and they have also confirmed this is not a terrorist-related incident.

Members of the public not unreasonably will be quite scared in that community in Hainault. I know it very well – it is a tight-knit community.

Additional uniformed officers will be present, not simply to reassure members of the public but also in case members of the public have any intelligence and any information.

I would encourage members of the public in Redbridge to ring 101. If they have information they can ring crimestoppers. I appreciate how terrifying this was.

They can also contact victim support who can provide assistance to those residents who will be traumatised, I am sure, by what happened this morning.

The Metropolitan police has clarified the boy who was killed in the attack is 14, not 13 as they previously reported at the press conference in the afternoon.

Police now say that “after speaking with the victim’s family, we can confirm that the boy who died as a result of the incidents in Hainault was aged 14 and not 13”, BBC News reported.

Rachel Hall

One local resident, who asked not to be named, saw through her kitchen window the perpetrator stab a young victim with a long sword on the street, and then raise his arms in celebration – “like yay, yay I’ve done it, sort of proud”, she said. She said the young victim immediately collapsed.

She showed a picture to the Guardian of the young male victim, which showed him lying crumpled on the ground. She said local people had attempted to revive him and his family quickly gathered around from a neighbouring house. She said that police had arrived very quickly after the attack.

Videos taken in the morning by local resident Deepsikha Bhattacharjee, 36, showed helicopters, fire engines and police cars. She was woken up at 7am by loud noises of helicopters overhead.

“I came out and it was like chaos everywhere, police cars everywhere, no space left alone. People everywhere. I saw three helicopters and then people literally running from this side to that side. I saw a lot of people insanely running as though someone was chasing them,” she said.

She said local residents had been shouting “don’t go there, shooting is going on”, urging them to run in the opposite direction.