ABU DHABI // Detectives investigating the brutal hammer attack on three Emirati women in London have confirmed that the main motive was theft.
Five people are currently in custody – four men and a woman – over the attack at the Cumberland Hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Khuloud Al Najjar, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, were attacked in their room on the seventh floor of the hotel, in central London, by a man wielding a hammer.
Three children aged 7 to 12 were asleep in an adjoining room when the attack took place between 1am and 2am. They were unharmed.
Police said the women were attacked after they awoke and disturbed the intruder. Detectives found a hammer at the scene.
Ohoud remains in a critical condition in hospital. Her sisters have serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The five arrested are all British nationals.
The four men, aged 56, 34, 32 and 32, were detained on suspicion of attempted murder, and a 31-year-old woman, detained on suspicion of handling stolen goods, were also arrested at homes in Islington.
All five remain in custody at north London police stations.
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said: “This was an awful attack on three women in their London hotel. An investigation, led by detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service Homicide and Major Crime Command, was launched immediately after the incident.
“The operation has been assisted by our policing counterparts in Abu Dhabi; this excellent co-operation is ongoing.
“The police investigation is making real progress. Five people remain in police custody and my officers are working hard to bring to justice those responsible for this attack.”
newsdesk@thenational.ae
* As a result of an editing error, the names of two of the three Emirati sisters attacked at the Cumberland Hotel in London were transposed in an earlier version of this article. Ohoud Al Najjar, 34, the middle daughter is in a coma, not Khuloud Al Najjar.
