Man charged after girl stabbed in Leicester Square

Transcript

00:00What more can you tell us?

00:03Well we've had an update really in the past few minutes from the Metropolitan Police and

00:07I'm glad to say it is broadly good news or as good as it can be at a crime scene like

00:12this.

00:13They've told us the 11-year-old girl will require hospital treatment but her injuries

00:17are not believed to be life-threatening, that's the first update really.

00:21We've had her condition and the second victim who we know was a 34-year-old woman, they're

00:27saying suffered more minor injuries.

00:30So that is obviously a positive development coming from the Metropolitan Police and they've

00:34also told us again just in the last few moments that what happened here earlier this morning

00:40is not believed at this stage to be terror-related but that doesn't take away from the very real

00:46sense of terror and horror that would have been felt in one of the busiest parts of central

00:51London on of course one of the hottest days of the year.

00:54This area packed with tourists, it still is around me here, you'll be able to see many

00:58hundreds of people filling Leicester Square and it was here earlier this morning where

01:04this attack took place.

01:05Police saying a man has been arrested and is in custody, he's thought to be the only

01:10suspect.

01:11Now we've been speaking to a few witnesses who were here at the time in the late morning

01:15describing how a man attacked the woman first, this 34-year-old woman and then seemed to

01:22have got the young girl, remember we're talking about an 11-year-old here in what was described

01:26to Sky News as a headlock before stabbing her repeatedly, absolutely horrifying scenes.

01:32We have been told though that two people, two people either who worked in the area or

01:36who were here in the area at the time managed to get this individual down on the ground

01:40and restrain him until the police were able to arrive.

01:44The square we know and the surrounding area, 2.5 million visitors every single week, this

01:49is the area where we've got shops, we're in the heart of Soho theatre land, this is

01:54a really popular area, we don't know any more about this 11-year-old girl or the 34-year-old

01:58woman but as I say we know they were then rushed to a major trauma centre and both of

02:03their injuries are believed to either be minor or not life-threatening.

02:07You'll be able to see the cordon here still in place, police guarding, quite a small area

02:12considering what happened here but there is still a large part of the square itself cordoned

02:16off.

02:17We got a statement through earlier from London Ambulance Service, a spokesperson saying they

02:20were called here at 11.36 in the morning to reports of a stabbing at Leicester Square.

02:27They say they sent resources to the scene including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic

02:32and an incident response officer.

02:34They say they dispatched members of their tactical response unit as well.

02:38They treated a child and an adult at the scene and then took them to a major trauma centre

02:43As I've said already, one man has been arrested.

02:46Police say they believe he is the only suspect they're looking for at the moment and crucially

02:50this is not currently thought to be terror related.