Woman, 47, charged after four men stabbed in London's Covent Garden

London's Metropolitan Police arrested a 47-year-old woman after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden on Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

In a statement, the force said officers were called to reports of a stabbing in the capital's popular shopping district at around 12:30 pm.

Four men, aged 34, 39, 42, and 56, were found with stab wounds and were taken to hospital, according to the statement. Police said in an update on Thursday that they had all been discharged from hospital.

A woman, who has been named by police as Stella Gollovena, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault and is in custody. Gollovena was charged on Thursday with four counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.

"While at an early stage of the investigation, this is believed to be a mental health-related incident," police said on Wednesday, adding that "officers seized a pair of scissors at the scene."

An ambulance crew, a paramedic, and an incident response officer responded to the incident along with London’s Air Ambulance, per the London Ambulance Service.

"We treated four patients at the scene and took them all to a major trauma centre as a priority by road," the service said in a post on social media.

The police had used tasers to arrest the woman, according to a witness working in a nearby restaurant, who added that the woman was known locally as a homeless person who regularly frequented the area.

"I saw the lady get tased (tasered) by the police; it was the only way they could get her to drop the knife," the witness said.

Endell Street in Covent Garden, where the incident unfolded, was cordoned off with police tape for several hours.

Images published by local media showed an air ambulance helicopter in nearby Trafalgar Square.

According to another witness, the attacker was "always on this street; she was homeless."