How ‘desperate screams’ woke quiet neighbourhood to swordsman’s bloody rampage
Shortly before 7am, residents of a quiet north-east London neighbourhood were awoken by screams and the sound of a van crashing into a home.
A series of piercing and harrowing shrieks believed to be from a woman were heard in Thurlow Gardens in Hainault as a man wielding a sword embarked on a violent and bloody rampage on Tuesday.
In the terrifying 22 minutes that followed, a 13-year-old boy was killed. He was among five people – including two police officers – to be attacked. Police believe the victims were targeted randomly.
A man wearing a yellow hooded top being pursued by police at one point clambered on top of garages, taunting officers before disappearing into nearby gardens near Hainault Tube station.
Many petrified residents locked their doors and hid from view as the sword-wielding man apparently shouted about God before roaming from door to door in search of people to target.
While the motive for the attack remains a mystery, much of the police hunt and the man’s erratic behaviour were captured on mobile phone footage later posted on social media.
The first emergency calls to police came at about 6.50am, with the London ambulance service being alerted at 6.54am.
While the exact sequence of events remains unclear, some said the suspect first attacked a passerby before getting back into his van and crashing it into a house on Thurlow Gardens.
The front bumper was mangled and ripped off. The man was then spotted leaping out armed with the sword.
It appears he made his way towards Hainault Tube station where early morning commuters were making their way to travel to work. A number of the victims are thought to be passers-by who were confronted by him.
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.”
Another witness said there were a series of tense stand-offs between police and the assailant in an alleyway before a woman was heard to scream.
The man, who asked not to be named, said: “I also heard the words ‘he’s got a massive knife’, or ‘he’s got a massive sword’. Then he disappeared down this alley and then he was 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.”
Ela Zaniewska, 46, an insurance worker said she heard a “desperate scream” early on Tuesday morning from her home in nearby Amanda Close.
“I let the cat out in the morning about 6am. I came back and the cat was very nervous. I got up and had a quick look at what’s going on. It must have been something horrible – it’s a very quiet area.
“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.”
A video posted on social media showed the suspect emerging from the alley having clambered on top of a row of garages as officers shouted at him.
It is believed he went on to Laing Close where he was seen being repeatedly challenged by officers before being tasered.
One Laing Close resident, who did not want to be named, said she saw a man wielding a 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?’, also at the ambulance.
“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, sent by a resident, a police car arrives before the man verbally confronts the police and shouts “is there anybody here who believes in God?” while standing next to the motionless body.
Witnesses said he was eventually tasered at 7.15am on Laing Close. As the man collapsed to the ground, about eight people “jumped on him”, one eye witness said, before he was handcuffed and bundled into the back of a van.
A man who witnessed the arrest 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.”
Nagesh Katipally, who lives in Thurlow Gardens and saw the arrest, said: “There was a scream first and some shouting at 6.50am, it was a high-pitched scream.
“That was followed by the police coming within a few minutes. I thought it would be something to do with the parking because it gets busy here during rush hour.
“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 still alive and 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 and they pushed him into the van. I saw a police officer carrying the machete afterwards.
“I’ve had to keep my kids home from school today because of the incident.”
