Several police officers stabbed in North London

[busybeeburns]

Four police officers injured - three of them believed stabbed - in an incident in north London, Scotland Yard says :o

 

[bBC]

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15803860

[busybeeburns]

 

Four Metropolitan Police officers stabbed in London

 

Four police officers have been stabbed after being called to a disturbance in north-west London. Witnesses said a man had been chased by police in and out of shops before he fled into a butchers, grabbed a knife and attacked the officers.

 

Two of the PCs were seriously hurt and one suffered a broken hand during Saturday's incident in Kingsbury Road. A 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

 

Ch Supt Dalwardin Babu, the borough commander for Harrow, said one of the officers was stabbed in the stomach, a second suffered head injuries and a stab to the arm, the third officer received a stab wound to the leg and the fourth officer, who was slashed, suffered a broken hand. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "It was shocking that on a hopefully quiet Saturday morning in a London residential area that we had such a terrible incident. It shows just the difficult job that police officers do."

 

Mohammad Qasim, 51, owner of the Kingsbury Halal Butchers for 24 years, has described how the attacker walked into the shop and demanded they hand over a knife. Mr Qasim said: "The man came quickly inside and said 'give me a chopper'. The boys who work for me said 'why give you a chopper?'"

 

He said the man then grabbed a 12in long knife. "After a few minutes police came in and tried to catch him and he stabbed one. Everything was a mess and then police came and said 'go out'. Everybody came out and police went in and took the guy."

 

Shopkeeper Girish Modha, who owns a nearby sweet shop, described the events leading up to the stabbings. "A man was shouting at police in a small alleyway next to a hairdresser's shop which neighbours mine. He grabbed a piece of fluorescent tubing and brandished it at police. He then ran down Kingsbury Road, going into a cash-and-carry shop. At one point I think he threw a brick and smashed a police car window. "He then ran round the roundabout and carried on towards the Tube station. He went into a butchers, got a knife and that's when the stabbing took place."

 

The normally busy shopping street by Kingsbury Tube station remained cordoned off on Saturday afternoon. Ketan Vyas, the manager of a cash-and-carry store, VB and Sons, said a man aged in his 30s or 40s had burst into the shop chased by police. Mr Vyas said: "He picked up some cans of beans and threw them at the police and then carried on running out of the store and down the road. There were a lot of police after him. He was only in here for a few seconds."

 

Describing the aftermath of the incident a worker at a Carphone Warehouse shop opposite Kingsbury Halal Butchers said: "I saw about eight police officers on top of a man. Ambulances arrived to take away the injured policemen and the man was also taken away."

 

Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, who visited the area following the stabbings, said he was "deeply upset" and the mood in the area was "very sombre". A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service said they took five patients to hospital after being called to the scene at 08:50 GMT.

 

Four of the injured people were officers, but the identity of the fifth person who was taken to hospital is yet unknown. The incident took place near Kingsbury Circle, where Kingsbury Road and Kenton Road meets. Kingsbury Circle has been closed in all directions following the incident and five bus routes have been diverted.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15803860

[Black Rose]

Poor police officers :(