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Tower Hamlets: Three in hospital after health centre stabbings

Police arrested a man and have taken him into custody (Onuoha Olere)
Police arrested a man and have taken him into custody (Onuoha Olere)

Three people have been taken to hospital after stabbings at two health centres in east London, police said.

A man was detained nearby and taken to hospital for treatment.

It is understood two people were stabbed in the Tredegar Practice on St Stephen’s Road, Tower Hamlets and a further person was stabbed in St Stephen’s Health Centre off nearby William Place.

None of the injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

One eyewitness, Onuoha Olere, posted on Twitter: ‏’Terrible scene at Roman Road, E3 as done with machete went on a stabbing spree in a local surgery.’

The health centre in Tower Hamlets
The health centre in Tower Hamlets

Scotland Yard said in a statement: ‘Police were called at 11.06am on Wednesday, 19 December to reports of a stabbing at a health centre on St Stephen’s Road, Tower Hamlets.

‘Officers, including specialist firearms officers, attended and found three people suffering from stab injuries. ‘They were taken to hospital; their injuries are not being treated as life-threatening.

Farhad Alom, 25, who witnessed the attacks, said a bystander at St Stephen’s could not get to safety as he was in a wheelchair.

One person was stabbed in the neck and another in the stomach, he added, in what appeared to be targeted assaults.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she saw the knife attack at Tredegar Practice and a man stepped in to stop the attacker.

A man who was in the area at the time of the attack said: “A man has come out [of the surgery] quite quick so I’ve asked him what’s wrong and he said there’s a man in there that’s walked into the surgery and apparently stabbed an older lady.

“Then an ambulance and couple of CID cars and armed police was here quite quick.”