Immigrant held over deadly stabbing in London
LONDON, United Kingdom — Police arrested a man over a stabbing attack in west London that left one person dead and two injured on Tuesday, the force said, while ruling out a terrorist motive.
UK media reported that the suspect was an Afghan national, while the interior ministry confirmed only that he was a foreigner legally resident in Britain since 2022.
London police said in a statement emergency services treated a 49-year-old man who died at the scene in the western suburb of Uxbridge.
Another man aged 45 was severely wounded, and a boy of 14 suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, it said.
Police Chief Superintendent Jill Horsfall in the statement called it “a shocking and senseless act of violence”.
The statement said police were not treating the attack as a terrorist incident and were investigating whether there were any links between the suspect and the victims.
The Home Office said the suspect entered Britain in a truck in 2020 and was granted asylum in 2022.
It said he was not living in a hotel or other accommodation provided by the authorities, as falsely claimed on social media.
Hotels housing asylum seekers have been targeted by angry demonstrations over recent months after an Ethiopian man sexually assaulted a teenage girl and a woman.
The man was later convicted in that case, which added to anti-immigrant sentiment that has fuelled protests, riots and inflammatory social media messaging in Britain in recent months.
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