Man arrested after stabbing at London's Central Middlesex Hospital

Two people injured during the attack, with one person receiving life-threatening wounds

Two people were injured in the attack, including one victim who received life-threatening wounds. Photo: Alamy

A man was arrested in connection with a stabbing attack that took place on Wednesday at Central Middlesex Hospital in north-west London, which police placed under lockdown.

Two people were injured, including one victim who received life-threatening wounds, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Armed police were called to the scene at 1.20pm on Wednesday.

A man was detained at the scene and was also in a critical condition with self-inflicted injuries.

Police say no one else is being sought in connection with the incident, which is not thought to be terror related.

Visitors and patients at the hospital were temporarily placed under lockdown as police scoured the building, eventually arresting a man outside.

Armed police guard the entrance to a building near Central Middlesex Hospital.

One witness said he saw the alleged attacker with a pickaxe chase two men who managed to escape.

Amie Ferris-Rotman, who was visiting the hospital dialysis unit with her father, told Sky News that police checked the area where they were before locking them in a nurses’ room for about 45 minutes.

“All the dialysis patients were quite freaked out,” she said.

“And at one point, those who were about to go on to dialysis were put on wheelchairs and brought into a room, which is where we were as well, and they were locked in.”

The trust which runs the hospital said it has reopened and services would “continue as normal”.

The incident comes amid elevated sensitivities over knife crime after three people were fatally stabbed in the city of Nottingham earlier this month.

Valdo Calocane has been charged with murdering 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates in the early hours of June 13.

The 31-year-old has also been charged with attempting to murder three pedestrians, Wayne Birkett, Marcin Gawronski and Sharon Miller, by driving Mr Coates’s van at them.