How ‘desperate screams’ woke quiet neighbourhood to swordsman’s bloody rampage

Shortly before 7am, residents of the quiet north-east London neighbourhood of Hainault were awoken by a series of piercing screams and the sound of a van crashing into a home.

During the terrifying 22 minutes that followed, a lone man wielding a sword went on a violent and bloody rampage that culminated in the death of a 14-year-old schoolboy – with his actions filmed by witnesses and uploaded to social media almost in real time.

The teenager, possibly attacked as he walked to school, was among five people – including two police officers – who suffered serious injuries in what is believed to have been a series of random and apparently motiveless attacks. The four survivors were yesterday being treated in hospital.

Here is a minute-by-minute account of how the incident unfolded.

6.53am

Police receive 999 calls

Redbridge Borough Police receive calls reporting a vehicle being driven into a house in the Thurlow Gardens area of Hainault, north-east London.

A witness told The Telegraph a man was then “stabbed in the neck by the driver” after approaching the vehicle to check on the motorist’s welfare.

The attacker then gets back in the grey van, reverses and drives off.

The suspect is photographed from a top floor bedroom window on Laing Close wearing a yellow hooded top and carrying a sword. It is believed he drove his van to this street after ramming a residential home nearby.

6.54am

Attack unfolds

A resident photographs the man face-on striding along Laing Close, carrying the sword in his right hand.

A police officer stands just yards in front of the suspect, with the body of an injured passerby lying to his left. The suspect shouts at officers: “Is there anybody here who believes in God?”

The suspect is believed to have cut through an alleyway on to Franklyn Gardens, where he is again photographed walking down the street.

A police car approaches the suspect. forcing him to turn back on to Franklyn Gardens, where it is believed he walked towards another alleyway.

A policewoman on foot approaches him and orders him to put down the weapon.

Another police car approaches and the suspect flees.

The man runs into an alleyway of garages tucked between Franklyn Gardens and Thurlow Gardens. A police car follows him and three officers, including a female officer on foot, shout: “Come here. Drop the sword.”

The suspect disappears behind a garage. A video shows the officers approaching, warning each other “easy, easy” in case he emerges.

He is then spotted on top of the garages before he drops down into the back garden of one of the homes on Thurlow Gardens.

Someone is heard shouting: “He’s going in people’s gardens, man. Lock your doors. Lock your doors. Everyone lock your doors.”

One officer explains they believe him to be “going out of a side gate”.

7.15am

Suspect is arrested

The suspect is tasered and arrested in Thurlow Gardens before being handcuffed and dragged into the back of a police van. A witness estimates around eight officers are needed to hold him down.

7.35am

Emergency services assist police

The London Fire Brigade is called to assist police and paramedics in an “incident near Hainault” Tube station.

‘He’s got a massive knife’: Terrified neighbours recall horrific scene

Residential streets near Hainault Tube went into lockdown as petrified homeowners bolted their doors and hid after spotting a bearded man, who wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt and shouting about God, prowling the streets.

He was pursued by police some on foot and armed only with Tasers as he roamed from door to door, clambering on to garage roofs, vaulting fences and running through back gardens. He was eventually tasered and arrested on suspicion of murder. No one else was being sought in connection with the murder and attacks, which police said were not terror-related.

While the motive for the attack remains a mystery, much of the police hunt and the man’s erratic behaviour were captured on mobile phones and posted on social media, often by residents leaning out of upstairs windows or by those caught up in the chaos as they walked to work.

The “serious incident” began at about 6.53am when police received a flurry of 999 calls from Thurlow Gardens after a grey Ford Transit van rammed into the side of a house.

A witness told the Telegraph a passerby went to check on the motorist but was instead set upon by the driver.

The local man, called Brandon, said: “A van had driven straight into the side of the house opposite me. I heard a load of screaming and it turned out a man who had gone to see if the motorist was OK got stabbed in the neck by the driver.

“The driver then got back in his car and reversed out the side of the house to drive up the back road opposite where it all started kicking off again. I could hear more people running and screaming.”

The London ambulance service was alerted at 6.54am to reports of stabbings at Hainault Tube station. By then, police were on the scene, challenging the man after he had abandoned his van in nearby Laing Close, where he is understood to have attacked the teenager believed to have been dressed in school uniform.

One witness said: “I heard shouting, I heard shrieking – I thought ‘who would be shrieking at this time in the morning?’

“The shrieking sounded like the police – you know when they are ordering someone to stop or to get on their knees or something – it was like that.

“It was like ‘stop where you are, put that down, put that down’ – that kind of thing.

“I looked out the back window because the noise was coming from back there. I saw a bloke dressed in yellow jumping over some fences … then he went down an alley like he was going back onto the street again.

“I saw a policeman and policewoman – normal coppers with the short-sleeved shirts – who chased after him, and they were shouting for him to put it down.”

One Laing Close resident, who did not want to be named, said she saw a man wielding the sword and standing just outside her house alongside what appeared to be a body lying on the ground.

“He was wielding his sword trying to attack the police but then they sprayed him and he ran away,” she said. “He was shouting at the police ‘do you believe in God?

“We were very scared and trying to hide and not show ourselves through the window, because he was standing right next to our house and he could have seen us if he looked up.

“We were trying to hide but also at the same time taking video of him attacking the police, and of the body on the floor, so, yeah, we were very scared and we didn’t know what to do.”

In another video clip, filmed by a resident, a police car arrives before the man verbally confronts the officer and shouts “is there anybody here who believes in God?” while standing next to the motionless body on the ground.

Ela Zaniewska, 46, an insurance worker, said she heard a “desperate scream”.

“I got up and had a quick look at what’s going on. There were blue lights everywhere. At some point I heard a woman screaming and crying. I just heard screams. It sounded like a desperate scream. I couldn’t see much but I could hear a lot of noises.”

Another witness said there were a series of stand-offs between police and the suspect in an alleyway leading to Franklyn Gardens.

The man, who asked not to be named, said: “I also heard the words ‘he’s got a massive sword’. Then he disappeared down this alley and out of sight.

“They [the police] went into the alley and there seemed to be some sort of a stand-off there where I heard this huge commotion, then I heard a scream.

“From that commotion at least one person was knifed – I think it might have been a woman because I heard a woman scream and then some sort of sobbing sounds.

“I then heard a voice say something like ‘she’s been stabbed in the face’ or ‘we need assistance’ – you know, calling for medical back-up.”

It is understood the man had run to Franklyn Gardens, before a police patrol car was filmed approaching him, while another officer was on foot.

A video posted online then showed the man emerging from the alley having clambered on top of a row of garages. Three police cautiously followed him, warning one another: “Easy, easy.”

In another clip, someone is heard shouting: “He’s going in people’s gardens, man. Lock your doors. Lock your doors. Everyone lock your doors.”

One officer is heard warning that he or she believed they heard him “going out of a side gate”.

The man then ran back to Thurlow Garden, just yards from where he had rammed the house with his van.

Witnesses said he was eventually tasered at 7.15am on Laing Close. As the man collapsed to the ground, about eight officers “jumped on him”, one witness said. The man was handcuffed and bundled into the back of a van. An officer was seen removing the sword.

A photograph taken by a security doorbell captures the man swinging the sword at the moment he was being tasered.

A witness told Sky News: “There was a massive response from the police; there were lots of them, at least a dozen.

“They all ran up to the driveway shouting and screaming at him to put a big samurai sword down. He was shouting back at them.

“They tasered him. Then seven or eight of them piled on top of him. They were there for about 15 minutes before picking him up off the floor and putting him in the back of the [police] van. They arrested him at [about] 7.15am.”

A neighbour on that street, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said: “I heard police sirens and then the car stopped here for three seconds, which was a bit odd. I opened the door and I could see armed police officers.

“I saw a gentleman, a white guy, running, being chased by the police.

“He went into that driveway and he was being tasered, being told to stop, then he jumped into that other neighbour’s driveway.

“He was being tasered, went to the floor with all the armed police officers around and he was subdued there for half an hour.

“I think he mentioned something about God and attempted murder. He was quite resisting [arrest].”

Nagesh Katipally, who also lives in Thurlow Gardens, said: “When the police came they took the knife and they wrapped him up in a black sheet. There was no blood on him. He was showing resistance, and four officers took him into the van.

“It was like a big cloth he was wrapped in. They put it over his head and then around the rest of his body, then they lifted it up and carried him away.

“Once he was contained in the sheet they pushed him into the van. I saw a police officer carrying the machete afterwards.”

The attacks carried out in daylight and resulting in the death of a schoolboy sent shockwaves through the country.

Rishi Sunak paid tribute to the bravery of emergency services who responded to the 999 calls.

“I’d like to give my thanks to the emergency teams that are responding and to pay tribute to their bravery,” the Prime Minister said.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said he was “absolutely devastated” by the attack and thanked the emergency services for “running towards danger”.

At a press conference held near the scene, the officers who challenged the attacker were praised by Jas Athwal, the leader of Redbridge council, for being “heroic” for putting themselves in “harm’s way”.

Rick Prior, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the thoughts of London’s police officers were with the family of the 14-year-old boy and all of those injured, including the two officers.

“This horrific incident is a sad reminder of the incredible bravery our officers display and the dangers they face to keep the public in London safe, day in and day out,” he said.

Rumours were circulating locally that police had gone to see the man on Monday, fewer than 24 hours before the attacks. However, Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe told a press conference near the scene there was nothing to suggest there had been any contact with the man before the attacks.

She said: “The 36-year-old man arrested at the scene is currently in hospital having suffered injuries when his van collided with a building.

“He has been arrested on suspicion of murder. At this time, given his injuries, we have been unable to interview him.

“Our thoughts of course remain with the family and friends of the 14-year-old boy who very sadly died here this morning.

“We’re also thinking of the two members of the public who were injured, as well as brave officers who were stabbed.”

Wes Streeting, the local MP for Ilford North, said the “whole community will be devastated by the heartbreaking news” that a teenager had been killed in “the horrific sword attack”.