Home Office stabbing: Civil servant knifed in ‘unprovoked’ attack in Westminster

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A civil servant has been stabbed in an "unprovoked" attack outside the Home Office.

Witnesses said the suspect had a long knife and a pet carrier that contained a ferret, which could be seen in images from the scene.

Police said they were called to Marsham Street, Westminster, shortly after 1pm "following a report of a man with a knife".

"The Met’s specialist firearms officers attended within six minutes to find a man, aged in his 60s, suffering knife injuries," a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police added.

"London Ambulance Service attended the address and took the victim to a central London hospital."

Police said the suspected attacker, a 29-year-old man, was carrying banned CS spray as well as the knife.

He has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and remains in custody at a police station.

The victim works at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is also based at 2 Marsham Street.

Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said: “I am deeply shocked by this horrific attack on a colleague today. My thoughts, and those of all my staff, are with him and his family. We are ready to provide as much support as we can and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

“We will be reviewing security across the MHCLG estate. All our staff must feel safe as they go about their important work."

Police said the victim's injuries were not life-threatening or life-changing.

Investigators could not immediately confirm or deny whether the incident was terror-related.

"Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the incident," a Scotland Yard spokesperson said.

"We are keeping an open mind about any possible motive at this early stage."

Images from the scene showed a man walking out of the Home Office with armed police and a paramedic.

He was wearing a suit but no shirt, and had a large amount of blood splattered on his front and a patch over his eye.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, tweeted: "All my thoughts are with the victim and their family following horrific unprovoked knife attack on Marsham Street."

The Home Office was cordoned off by armed police on Thursday afternoon, as staff remained inside.

The building, which sits a 10-minute walk away from the Houses of Parliament, is under constant guard by armed police and anyone entering must past through a metal detector and security checks.

Items left on the ground behind the police cordon included a can of "self defence spray", a return train ticket to Birmingham, phone and what appeared to be a knife sheath.

There was also a rucksack and plastic pet carrier containing a ferret.

The Independent understands the animal is alive and well, and has been taken into the care of police.

One witness described seeing a man remove a “long” knife from his bag before the incident.

“I was sat outside the Home Office waiting for a friend to meet for lunch and on the other side of the entrance I just saw a bloke take a knife out of his bag, and just wander up the path and stop in front of two girls who were just sat there having a chat,” said Guy Ellis, 54.

“Then he wandered back and turned round and crossed the road very calmly and merged into the crowd.”

He described the man as 6ft, slim, with long, dark hair in a ponytail and said he was “scruffily” dressed.

Witness Shaun Malston, 43, described seeing people running into the building after the stabbing.

“I suddenly heard a lot of noise and commotion - people shouting - and people running into the Home Office,” he added.​

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said it was called at 1.11pm, adding: “We dispatched an incident response officer, a medic in a response car, a motorcycle paramedic and an ambulance crew.

"We treated a man at the scene and took him to a major trauma centre."

The attack came amid controversy over the Home Office's "knife free" campaign, which is using chicken boxes in an attempt to stop young people carrying weapons.

Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, said boxes carrying teenagers' stories inside the lid aimed to "bring home to thousands of young people the tragic consequences of carrying a knife".

"The government is doing everything it can to tackle the senseless violence that is traumatising communities and claiming too many young lives, including bolstering the police’s ranks with 20,000 new police officers on our streets," he added.

The latest fatal stabbing came later on Thursday afternoon, when an 18-year-old boy was murdered in south London.

Police found the teenager suffering from stab wounds in Corrance Road, Lambeth, at 2pm and he was pronounced dead 40 minutes later by paramedics.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Violent crime has been rising nationwide since 2014, with drivers partly blamed on government budget cuts to policing, social services and preventative work.

Boris Johnson has pledged to increase the number of police officers by 20,000 and increase blanket stop and search as part of a raft of policy announcements on crime and justice.

The Home Office tasked with implementing the changes, as the department in charge of security, law and order in the UK.

Official statistics released on Thursday showed that the number of people punished for committing crimes in England and Wales has hit a record low, despite rising offences.

In the year to March, the number of crimes solved plummeted by 40,000 and experts have blamed government cuts to policing and the wider criminal justice system.

Only 7.8 per cent of crimes saw a suspect charged or summonsed in 2018-19, compared to 9.1 per cent the year before.

For rape, the figure was just 1.5 per cent – down from 3 per cent in 2017-18 – and the figure was only 8 per cent for violence, 7 per cent for robbery, 6 per cent for theft and 3.5 per cent for sexual offences.

Additional reporting by PA