March 17 (UPI) — Police in Great Britain are investigating a non-fatal stabbing Saturday night in suburban London as an act of terrorism.
A 19-year-old suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized following the incident and a 50-year-old man was arrested, Surrey Police said in a news release.
Shortly before the alleged stabbing, police received reports of a man, believed to be the accused attacker, brandishing a knife and baseball bat while yelling racism statements, police said.
“Whilst this investigation is still in its infancy, it has hallmarks of a terror event, inspired by the far right, and therefore it has been declared a terrorism incident,” Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu said in a statement. Basu doubles as the Metropolitan Police’s head of counter-terrorism policing.
The Guardian newspaper reported the stabbing in Stanwell was one of a number of racially motivated crimes reported this weekend in Great Britain.
Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable Russ Jackson said in a statement that his department has seen “a small number of incidents where people have either posted or made remarks referencing the horrible events in New Zealand, particularly online where people often think it is acceptable to abuse others.” Jackson called some of the statements “frankly disgusting.”
Fifty people were killed in an attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last week. Police have said the suspect in the shooting wrote a 74-page anti-Muslim, white nationalist and fascist manifesto.
