This is the moment onlookers apprehended a “knifeman” who is accused of repeatedly stabbing a woman yesterday on a crowded London street.
It comes amid claims of witnesses valiantly rescuing a woman who had been repeatedly attacked by a knifeman inside the M&S coffee shop on Edgware Road.
Waleed Ali, 54, of no known address, has been charged by detectives with attempted murder and having a knife in a public place following the incident.
After courageous onlookers apparently intervened to halt the attack, video has surfaced showing a man being carried off the ground by a police officer while he is injured and confused.
A cut can be seen on the arrested man’s forehead and the back of his skull as an officer lifts him to a sitting posture from the ground.
On October 21, Ali will make a custodial appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The 30-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital with stab wounds. It was determined that her illness was not life-threatening.
According to The Times, there are rumors that the victim was pulling a buggy when she was attacked.
One witness applauded the coffee shop personnel following the frightening occurrence, calling it “utterly horrible.”
Just been in the M&S on Edgware Road when a stabbing occured outside the shop.. completely awful.. but have to say to M&S all your employees were absolutely great…’ She posted on Twitter immediately after the assault. They all deserved salary raises since they were so courageous.
Another eyewitness alleges that a woman was assaulted before heroic bystanders intervened to protect her.
‘Sickened observing a woman being battered in the road […] on the Edgware Road – I hope she’s OK, courageous people getting involved and beating him off/pulling her to safety, I was too far away to quickly intervene,’ he wrote. ‘Brave people getting involved and dragging her to safety.
“Builders leapt out of the vehicle, and men and ladies on the sidewalk were all attempting to assist,” he said. “I was behind M&S.” dreadful to watch.
Members of the public followed and beat the alleged assailant and detained him while police came, according to the proprietor of a store across the street from the site of the stabbing on Edgware Road.
He attempted to flee, but the local men managed to grab him, and they beat him until the police arrived, according to Omar Awada, 47.
Mr. Awada said, “They were on him right and left, it was like Tom and Jerry.”
Investigators from the forensics department have been photographing and searching the site for evidence.
Police officers were posted in a police cordon outside Maison Du Sultan and a nearby Costa coffee shop.
In addition to three chairs and a small table being knocked over, a glass shisha pipe lay on its side outside the business’s front entrance.
In a nearby doorway, a coat and a pair of boots could be spotted with a first aid pack. A police officer afterwards gathered them in a transparent plastic bag.