Perpetrator charged

Knife attack in London: Charge of attempted murder

The police were able to quickly arrest the armed man.(Bild: APA/AFP/BENJAMIN CREMEL)

Following the knife attack on an eleven-year-old girl in central London, a 32-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder. According to the latest information, the girl's mother was not injured after all.

"It was later confirmed that blood from her daughter's injuries had been mistaken for her own injuries," police said on Tuesday. The suspected perpetrator, who has no registered home address and is a Romanian citizen, is not known to the girl or her mother. The authorities do not believe the attack was a terrorist act.

Riots after knife attack in Southport
The attack in the centrally located Leicester Square, which is close to many sights, theaters and stores, had caused a stir. There have recently been serious riots by right-wing extremists in many British cities. They accuse the authorities of lying about the identity of a knife attacker who stabbed three girls and injured several children in the north-western English town of Southport.

Rumors had been stirred up on social media that the perpetrator was a Muslim migrant. The suspect is a 17-year-old who was born in the UK to Rwandan parents.