With the attack reported just before 7am this morning, Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell said it took 22 minutes from that moment until the suspect’s arrest.
Our correspondent Matthew Thompsonwho is at the scene in Hainault, said residents would have been terrified in the time between the suspicious appearance with a large blade and his arrest.
“That 22-minute period early this morning when people would have been making their way to work, children potentially on their way to school, 7am… it must have been unimaginably frightening,” he said.
“And some of the video that is circulating online is harrowing, with people shouting, screaming, warning that this man was on the loose.”
He described footage showing one witness shouting to neighbors to “lock their doors”.
“It must have been completely terrifying in what, as I say, is a fairly nondescript, sleepy commuter belt in the far northeast of London,” Thompson adds.
“And the witnesses we have actually spoken to have echoed those sentiments and describe their fear, their horror and their shock at witnessing what they witnessed and clearly now, having heard the tragic news – that it has not just been an attack, but also a death – will have impacted the community all the more.”
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