LONDON — A man was arrested for attempted murder after a stabbing Thursday at a mosque in central London, police said.
Officers were called to the London Central Mosque & The Islamic Cultural Centre at 3:10 p.m. local time (10:10 a.m. ET), the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The mosque is less than 3 miles from Buckingham Palace.
“A man was found with stab injuries,” the statement said, adding that he was taken to a hospital. A spokesperson for the force later confirmed the man was in his 70s and that his injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
“A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder,” the statement said. Detectives investigating the incident do not believe it to be terror-related, it added.
Images posted to social media showed a white man in a red hooded top, jeans and bare feet being pinned to the floor by police officers inside the mosque, as others, including a small child, watched. One video showed a knife on the floor under a plastic chair.
No one from the mosque was available for comment, but an eyewitness told the U.K.’s Press Association news agency that the suspect had been a regular in the mosque, and had been seen at least six months ago.
Abi Watik, 59, said the victim had been stabbed once in the right shoulder moments after prayers had started, and he believed the suspect had waited for that moment.
He said: “He was praying behind him and then he stabbed him.”
The attack came less than 24 hours after a gunman killed 10 people in two attacks outside hookah lounges in the German city of Hanau, before fatally shooting himself at his home.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that early indications suggested it was a racist, far-right attack.