A woman has been beheaded in a back garden and a police officer injured after a man reportedly went berzerk with a machete on Thursday, September 4, 2014.
Specialist firearms officers were deployed to an address in Edmonton, north London, just after 1pm. There they found the victim collapsed in a garden. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 25-year-old man was detained by firearms officers near the scene. One firearms officer was injured during the arrest and is believed to be suffering from a broken wrist.
A Taser was discharged by officers. Scotland Yard has confirmed the man was arrested on suspicion of murder and is in custody.
There is no suggestion that the killing had any terrorist motive.
Sky News reports that other potential victims fled in a car from the area where the attack took place.
It is believed they escaped the scene in a Blue Ford Focus car, which reportedly made it only a few hundred yards before it was stopped.
Some also said they saw the man killing cats.
Rickie Benson, a builder working up the road from the horror scene, said: ‘I heard there was a man walking up the road cutting the head off a cat as he made his way to the house.
‘I saw them taking a body out. It was in a bag and they were putting it into an ambulance at about 2.30. I heard someone was murdered in the house.’
Casmir Afugbuom, 37, said: ‘I can’t believe something like this has happened. It is not an area like this. I have lived here 20 years everyone here is mainly Nigerian, Turkish or Polish. Whoever did this is obviously. I heard they used a machete.’
Lauren Perkins, who lived on nearby Goodwin Road, told the Enfield Independent: ‘I was walking down the road when I saw a man with a big knife walking down the street.
‘Then I saw some police come down and they told me to get off the road. I just can’t believe something like that would happen. It’s just so shocking.’
‘Then a guy with a knife was in our back garden. There was a lot of blood on the knife and he was just hacking away at stuff. It’s just unbelievable, I’m so shocked.’
George Stutianou, who was working on a nearby house when the attack happened, said: ‘There were so many police here, there must have been about 30 cars.
‘I saw some police smashing the doors and the windows of three houses either side through women and children.
‘We were in the road and two policemen were running as fast as they could towards us, shouting at us to run and get out of the street. We just didn’t know what was going on.’
Scotland Yard has so far refused to comment on reports the victim had been decapitated and given few details of what happened.
DCI John Sandlin, who is leading this investigation, said: ‘This is was a highly visible attack in broad daylight on a residential street.
‘I can understand why this may cause people concern, however we are confident that we are not looking for anyone else at this stage.
‘Whilst it is too early to speculate on what the motive behind this attack was I am confident, based on the information currently available to me, that it is not terrorist related.
‘Local officers and specialist detectives are at the scene and will remain there for many hours to come.
‘Specially trained family liaison officers will be deployed to support the family; we request that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.’
Detectives from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command are leading the investigation.
A spokeswoman from the London Ambulance Service confirmed the victim was found dead at the scene.
She said: ‘We were called at 1.30pm to an incident in Nightingale Road, Edmonton. We sent a number of resources to the scene including London’s Air Ambulance, an ambulance crew and a duty officer.
‘Sadly a woman was pronounced dead at the scene by the doctor from London’s Air Ambulance.’
Witness Ricardo Kwiek told Sky News: ‘We’ve seen a lot of police coming in. They got to the door, and when they got there, the person didn’t want to let them in.
‘But the police wanted to get in through the back, and the person wouldn’t let them in. So they broke the door down. After that there was a man that came out and they got him.
‘But I’m not 100 per cent sure about that because that’s what the locals told me. I wasn’t that close to see what he looked like.
‘When the police arrived we were shocked to see so much police in one second, that was very weird for us. There was around maybe 40 police cars that came in and blocked the road.
‘I think they handled it pretty good, because straight away they blocked off the area and told people to come out of their houses. Some of the police are still outside investigating what happened.’
The road is a typical suburban street in the London Borough of Edmonton. The average house value on there is £310,000, while it is £275,000 in the local N9 postcode area.
Twitter users reacted with shock following the incident.
I am absolutely horrified and stunned by what has happened in #Edmonton and my heart goes out to the family affected.
— Andy Love MP (@AndyLoveMP) September 4, 2014
Kelly Gannon said: ‘Edmonton makes me so sick there’s always some kind of killing going on.’
‘Sultanic_10’ said: ‘Nightingale Road is where my secondary school was, there’s obviously a secondary school and a primary school very nearby.’
And Alex Ioanno, of nearby Enfield, said: ‘Used to walk down Nightingale Road every day and a woman’s been beheaded. Stay safe people, it’s a crazy world.’
Fashion designer Moyowa Akitikori said on Twitter: ‘Someone just beheaded near my road. I’m so not leaving my house.
‘Just this afternoon is just so sad like I go running on Nightingale Road and just when I thought I lived in a safe area [sic].’
And Matthew Williamson said: ‘I chose the right day to be working off Nightingale Road. Woman [has] been beheaded on the next b***** road. What is wrong with this world?’
Cuckoo Hall Primary School is located just off Nightingale Road, but a spokesman declined to comment on the situation nearby when approached by MailOnline.
