An 11-year-old girl has been taken to hospital after being stabbed by a stranger in London’s West End.

The Metropolitan Police said its officers were at the scene of a stabbing in Leicester Square on Monday where the girl and a 34-year-old were stabbed.

The force said a man has been arrested and is in custody. Police do not believe the suspect knew the victims and said they did not believe the attack to be terror-related.

The girl and the woman have been taken to hospital and their condition is not yet known.

Detective Chief Superintendent Christina Jessah, in charge of policing for Westminster, said: “This is a horrific incident and our thoughts are with the victims and their family. We will continue to provide support to them over the coming days and weeks.

“I would like to pay tribute to the members of the public, including staff from local businesses, who bravely intervened in this incident. They put themselves at risk and showed the best of London in doing so.

“An urgent investigation is now ongoing and detectives are working to establish the details around exactly what happened.

“At this stage we don’t believe the suspect and the victims were known to each other.

“While we continue to work to establish the suspect’s motive, at this stage there is nothing to indicate the attack was terror-related.

“Detectives will be keen to speak to anyone who was in the area and may have information that can assist with their enquiries. I would urge anyone who can help to get in touch.”

A police cordon has been put in place surrounding the double doors of the TWG Tea shop on the square. The cordon is beside the Lego store and in front of the M&M store, with visitors and tourists still standing in queues for each.

At least six police officers were at the scene.

The ambulance spokesman said: “We were called at 11.36am on Monday 12 August to reports of a stabbing at Leicester Square. 

“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic and an incident response officer. We also dispatched members of our tactical response unit.

“We treated a child and an adult at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre.”

A security guard claimed he “jumped on” and took a knife from a man who had stabbed a child.

The 29-year-old, who gave his name as Abdullah, said he had worked in security at the TWG Tea Shop for the past “seven to eight months”.

He said: “I heard a scream, at that moment I saw there was one person, roughly mid-30s or early 30s, and he was like stabbing a kid. I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was [carrying] a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him.

“Then a couple of more people joined as well, and we just held him until the police came, it took maybe three to four minutes for the police to arrive and then they just took him into custody.”

He said and his colleagues had given first aid to the child before the police arrived, adding:  “I just saw a kid getting stabbed and I just tried to save her. It’s my duty to just save them.”

He added that he did not know whether the girl was with family members at the time.

Rahul, a security guard at Gregg’s, was inside the fast-food joint when the stabbing took place.

“I was inside, but I came outside when I heard the noise of the girl crying ‘mummy, mummy’,” he told The Telegraph.

“There was a lot of blood, when I went there. On the girl and on her hands,” he said.

He added that the girl was taken inside the store until an ambulance and police arrived on the scene.

‘I was heartbroken’

A street performer who witnessed the stabbing said he saw a young, white, male wearing a black T-shirt and jeans attack the pair.

Desmond, 45, said the knifeman focused the attack on the girl, putting her in a headlock and stabbing her.

Desmond, who performs as Darth Vader on the square “every day”, told The Telegraph that he was standing outside the Lego store when the stabbing took place.

He said: “I was looking forwards, and when I heard the screaming I had to turn to the side. And when I looked he [the assailant] was attacking the little girl. He was stabbing her with a knife.”

Before Desmond could get down off his stand he said that two men who appeared to be passing by intervened.

He said: “The two boys who were passing, they rushed the [attacker], and pushed him to the ground. And the police got there really quickly and handcuffed him and put him in a van.”

When the police arrived and put the attacker in cuffs, Desmond told The Telegraph that the attacker did not resist: “He was not fighting or struggling with them, he was not struggling at all.”

Earlier, Desmond told reporters: “I think the woman was also stabbed once, but the child was the most targeted, he was stabbing the child several times.”

He added: “It was so terrible, I’ve never seen a thing like that. I was heartbroken, I saw the woman was screaming with all her strength.”

Leicester Square and the surrounding area have an estimated 2.5 million visitors every week and are home to shops, theatres, cinemas and restaurants.

A four-year-old boy died of sepsis after allegedly being sent home from hospital and told to take Calpol.

Daniel Klosi was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Camden, London, four times in the week before his death, but was discharged on three of those occasions.

Lindita Alushi and Kastriot Klosi, his parents, claim that doctors advised them to give their son Calpol and Ibuprofen during the second and third visits.

On the fourth visit, Daniel, who had autism, was admitted to the children’s emergency department with sepsis and died hours later.

The couple have enlisted help from specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell and the inquest into Daniel’s death is due to start on August 13 at Poplar Coroner’s Court, in east London.

The inquest is expected to last two days.

Ms Alushi, a pharmacy assistant and qualified doctor in her native Albania, said: “Daniel was the most adorable little boy and we were so blessed that he was our son. He loved cooking and baking with me.

“He loved animals, listening to stories and playing with his friends. Daniel was very inquisitive and curious. He was just an absolute delight. We still struggle to understand what happened to Daniel and why.

“We kept taking him to hospital and were really concerned about his condition but nothing can prepare you for being told your little boy has died.

“That day our family changed forever. Our days are filled with distress, emptiness and sorrow.”

Daniel’s parents first took him to A&E at the Royal Free Hospital on Sunday, March 26 2023. He was sent home a couple of hours after arriving.

On the following Thursday night, they returned to the hospital concerned about Daniel’s breathing, and he was discharged in the early hours of Friday morning.

The pair continued to be concerned about Daniel, who had stopped eating, and took him back on Saturday 1 April, but they were sent home again.

They returned with Daniel at around 4pm, and after around four hours in A&E he was admitted. However, his condition deteriorated and he died in the early hours of April 2.

Ms Alushi, 44, said: “While time has moved on, it has stood still for our family because of the many unanswered questions around what happened to Daniel. Every day we wonder if more could have been done to save our little boy.

“We know that hearing everything again at the inquest will be incredibly difficult, but it’s something we need to do to honour our son and get the answers we’ve been seeking for more than a year.”

Lucy Macklin, the medical negligence lawyer representing the couple, said: “Attempting to try and come to terms with Daniel’s death and the events leading up to it has been incredibly difficult for Lindita and Kastriot.

“Understandably, they continue to have many questions and concerns about the care their son received and Daniel’s death.

“While nothing will ever make up for Daniel’s death, we’re determined to support his loved ones so they at least can be provided with the vital answers they deserve.

“The inquest is a major milestone in being able to do this. If during the course of the hearing any issues in the care Daniel received are identified, it’s vital that lessons are learned to improve patient safety for others.”

A spokesman for the Royal Free Hospital said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Daniel and once again would like to send our sincere condolences to his family.

“We have carried out an investigation into Daniel’s care and the findings were shared with his family. We await the outcome of the inquest.”

The highest number of migrants since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister crossed the Channel in a single day on Sunday.

A total of 703 people were detected making the crossing in 11 boats, according to provisional figures from the Home Office – the third highest daily number so far this year. 

The number of arrivals in small boats this year now stands at 18,342 – 13 per cent higher than at the same time last year, when it stood at 16,170, but three per cent lower than the total at this stage in 2022, when it was 18,978.

The highest number of migrants to arrive on a single day so far this year was 882 on June 18, while the second highest was 711 on May 1.

There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of last year, down 36 per cent on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

Two people died in French waters while trying to cross the Channel on Sunday morning. It is understood the others on board were rescued and taken back to France. French authorities are said to be leading the investigation into the deaths.

It comes after Dame Margaret Hodge accused Labour of being “too frightened” to talk about immigration in the wake of the riots.

The Labour grandee, who stood down as the MP for Barking, east London, at the general election, said it was vital to show that Britain could control its borders and urged the party to to take heed of voters’ frustrations over immigration levels.

During the riots groups attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, with dozens of masked thugs, many carrying England or Union flags, throwing missiles at police.

Last month, Sir Keir warned that there were “no silver bullets” to solve the small boats crisis. 

The Prime Minister said that he had been “left in a really difficult position” by Rishi Sunak, describing his focus on the Rwanda plan over other solutions as “a dereliction of duty”. He killed off the Rwanda plan on the first day of his premiership.

The Government has started work to create a Border Security Command, which would feature hundreds of new specialist investigators and is being funded by £75 million saved from scrapping the Rwanda scheme. Counter-terror powers are also being used in an attempt to smash the people-smuggling gangs.

James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, and a Tory leadership candidate, said the figures showed Labour’s approach to illegal migration “clearly isn’t working”.

“Since Labour have ditched our deterrent, more and more boats are crossing the Channel with more and more people in them,” he said. “They’ve sent the wrong signal, throwing the doors open instead of doing what is necessary to stop the dangerous crossings.”

Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister who is also running to become the Tory leader, said: “Yesterday, 703 people came to the UK illegally. Studies show each costs the taxpayer roughly £400,000 over their lifetime. 

“So the cost of not having a border for one day was £281 million. Starmer’s decision to scrap, rather than strengthen, the Rwanda plan will be a disaster.”

Asked about the small boat figures, a Numebr 10 spokesman said: “We’ve been very clear that we know the summer is a challenging time and we expect to see increases.

“We know that it’s within these months the criminal gangs seek to exploit people, taking ever more dangerous tactics and approaches, and tragically we saw that yesterday with further deaths in the Channel. And therefore it’s vital that we work to smash the gangs responsible for that.

“Tackling the gangs is one of the Government’s first priorities, and we’re working at pace to deliver that objective. We’ve been very open that that involves hard work with law enforcement agencies to bear down with them and work with our allies and that is ongoing.”

The spokesman likened the Government’s approach to illegal migration to the response to the riots, saying a “methodical, evidence-led approach” was the best chance of success.

Asked whether efforts to control migration were “failing” because of Sir Keir cancelling the Rwanda scheme, he said: “We wouldn’t agree with that.”

Number 10 also downplayed suggestions that  Sir Keir would make a keynote speech about migration in the coming week. Acknowledging concerns around net migration levels, which Labour has pledged to bring down, the spokesman said “legitimate concerns” about it did not justify the recent far-Right unrest.

A line of parked cars in a West Sussex town was left damaged after a driver, suspected to be under the influence of alcohol, allegedly crashed his Audi into the vehicles in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of drink-driving following the incident on Ockley Road in Bognor Regis.

Photographs from the scene show how cars parked along the residential street were left mangled, with parts of the Audi ripped off following the multiple collisions.

Sussex Police said: “Emergency services responded to a report that multiple cars were damaged in a collision [on] Ockley Road, Bognor Regis, at around 4.40am on Sunday, August 11.

“A 22-year-old man from Bognor was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, and with driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

“Inquiries are under way, and we ask those who witnessed the collision to make a report to police.”