A witness has described how an attacker punched a man to the ground in Leytonstone underground station in London and appeared to saw at him with a knife in front of horrified onlookers.
Salim Patel, 59, who works in the snack kiosk in the Central Line station ticket hall, told the Guardian the assailant was a tall black man with an Arabic accent.
He described him as “a very strong man who punched like a boxer” and said one of his victims was a white man carrying a musical instrument, possibly a guitar.
Patel said the man was attacked as he went down the stairs from the platform at the same time as the assailant. Police are treating the case, which took place at about 7pm on Saturday, as terrorism.
The suspect, believed to be 29, is reported to have shouted “This is for Syria” before being arrested after a police officer stunned him with a Taser. Two other people were injured in the attack.
“I was inside the shop and I heard screaming and shouting,” Patel said on Sunday morning. “When they came downstairs, this tall young guy was hitting and punching the victim so hard he fell on the floor. The person was shouting, ‘Help me, help me, somebody help me.’ He was in agony.”
He said he thought the victim had been rendered unconscious by the punches, but then his assailant started kicking him.
“He was kicking him so many times with [his] right leg and after a while he took his knife out and used it on his body,” said Patel. “I don’t know what part of the body he was using it on. I just saw his hand going forward and backward, forward and backward.”
Police said the victim was 56 and had suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries. Patel said: “It was very scary and everybody left the concourse and ran away screaming and shouting. I called the police.”
Patel was working at the kiosk when the attack happened. He said after using his knife on his victim, the attacker left the station concourse for a short time, giving members of the public the chance to help the man.
“But when he came back everybody ran away on to both sides of the platform,” said Patel. It appears that shortly after the attacker returned to the concourse he was confronted by police but not before lunging at another person and apparently stabbing them.
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