Police officers who responded to a sword attack in London suffered “horrifically serious injuries” – with one of them having been close to losing her hand, the head of the Metropolitan Police has said.
A 14-year-old boy was killed and four other people were injured in the attack in Hainault on Tuesday morning.
Police have said do not think it was a targeted attack, or terror-related, and they were working to establish the circumstances of what took place.
Police were initially called to the scene at 7am with footage showing several officers apprehending a man after he was tasered.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said officers “were on the ground in 12 minutes” and that “some of the first contacts led to officers being very severely injured”.
Speaking on LBC this morning, he added: “I was talking to the family and colleagues of the woman officer who has a really badly damaged arm, really seriously damaged, the surgeon spent many hours basically putting her arm back to together.”
Asked about reports she nearly lost her hand in the attack, Sir Mark said they were “not a million miles away”.
An inspector also suffered a serious hand injury while responding to the incident, with Sir Mark adding: “I saw him before the operation, he was in good spirits, I think that’s partly the morphine to be honest.”
Sir Mark did not confirm whether the two officers in hospital were the ones seen tasering the attacker.
The Met chief added that the 36-year-old suspect was detained after 22 minutes.
Dramatic footage has shown the moment he was tasered on a driveway before several officers with batons approach him after he hits the ground.
The words “suspect contained” are eventually heard as a female officer pulls the sword away from the attacker.
Sir Mark said this morning: “People say officers run towards danger.
“What you’ve actually seen on some of the videos that are sort of around social media and on new sites such as your own, you actually see what that really looks like. You’ve got officers running towards someone who’s waving a sword.”
Police have said the suspect crashed a van into a house near the Tube station in Hainault before stabbing a number of people.
The man is now in hospital due to the injuries he suffered in the crash, police said.
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