Nursery worker ‘slashed in the street by three women shouting Allah’
A NURSERY worker was slashed in the street by three women shouting ‘Allah’, a colleague said yesterday.
The victim, who is in her 30s and was named only as Katie, was left with broken ribs and needing stitches for a knife wound running up her arm.
Her three assailants are said to have been Asian women in their 20s who were wearing black and chanting Islamic phrases before and during the ten- minute onslaught.
A school near the incident was put into lockdown yesterday morning, as police combed the streets of Wanstead, East London, looking for the alleged attackers.
Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command was ‘made aware of the incident’, although insist it is not being treated as terrorism. Karrien Stevens, the operations manager of Little Diamonds nursery, where the woman works, said her colleague was followed by ‘ three Asian girls behind her chanting the Koran and “Allah”.’
She added: ‘They pulled her to the ground, punched her, kicked her. One of them pulled out a knife and cut her arm from her wrist to her elbow.’
She said the victim, who was not wearing a uniform, did not know her attackers, who fled the scene when a passer-by intervened.
Miss Stevens insisted the attack was not related to the nursery, adding: ‘There is no reason for it whatsoever. She is shaken up, she’s emotionally a bit of a wreck. They did scare her, but she is OK – she is a strong staff member.
‘ When she got to work we couldn’t believe it and called the police straight away. It’s terrible, I’m absolutely horrified. You don’t expect something like this to happen on your doorstep.’
She added: ‘She was in tears and she had a cut right up her arm. Her stomach was hurting, she had marks all over her, her hair was pulled out.
‘She’s now told us she has got some broken ribs and needed stitches on her arm.’ Paul Ashmore, 31, an engineer from nearby South Woodford, said his fiancee and child were held in lockdown at Wanstead Church School, a 30second walk from the incident.
He said his fiancee called him to say the school was not allowing anyone to leave ‘because there was a stabbing outside’, and added the police did not know ‘where the persons who did it were’.
Parents were initially told it was gang-related, he added.
Mr Ashmore said: ‘ My instant thought was to collect my fiancee and kid and get them to safety, not knowing the full extent of what was happening. But I was thinking the worst.
‘I instantly, after what has been happening regarding terrorists, thought the worst and informed her I will drive up to collect them.’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘It’s early days yet but the police are taking it very seriously. Various lines of inquiries are being followed. And I’m confident that justice will be done.’
A Scotland Yard spokesman said the woman suffered a slash wound and was taken to an East London hospital as a precaution, but her injuries were not life-threatening.
Police were called to the scene on the corner of Wanstead High Street and Hermon Hill at 9.36am yesterday.
‘The suspects fled the scene prior to police arrival in an unknown direction. No arrests have been made,’ a spokesman said.
‘It’s terrible – I’m horrified’