Police: American Woman Killed In London Knife Attack

LONDON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- British police say a Somali-Norwegian teenager who stabbed six people in London's Russell Square was a Norwegian of Somali origin, but they have found no signs of radicalization.

Police arrived within minutes and tasered the suspect who attacked several people with a knife, killing an American woman in her 60s, CBS' Jonathan Vigliotti reported.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said Thursday that it wasn't terrorism — but in a city on edge after a summer of attacks elsewhere in Europe, both authorities and London residents initially responded as if it were.

Police flooded the streets with extra officers and mobilized counter terror detectives before saying the shocking burst of violence appeared to have been "triggered by mental-health issues."

Officers used a stun gun to subdue the 19-year-old suspect at the scene of the stabbings late Wednesday, among busy streets lined with hotels close to the British Museum.

"I could just see, they were applying some sort of CPR to the person who was lying on the ground," Rehena Azam, a witness, said.

The name of the dead woman, thought to be in her 60s, hasn't been released. U.S. Ambassador Matthew Barzun confirmed she was American, tweeting:

The woman has not yet been identified.

The five injured people are British, American, Israeli and Australian. None has life-threatening injuries.

Police have not released the name of the suspect, but have interrogated him and interviewed his family.

"We believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random," Rowley said.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "there is no evidence at all that this man was motivated by Daesh" — another name for the Islamic State group — or similar organizations.

Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service said the teen had left the Scandinavian country in 2002, when he was a small child.

They believe he was mentally ill and not carrying out a terror attack.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley says the investigation "increasingly points to mental health issues'' as lying behind the rampage.

"I emphasize that so far we have found no evidence of radicalization that would suggest that the man in our custody is in anyway motivated by terrorism," Rowley said.

The attack occurred in London's popular Russel Square, which is close to landmarks including the British museum and is usually filled with tourists and students.

The NYPD Counterterrorism unit tweeted Wednesday that they were "monitoring the event unfolding in London."

The violence comes within hours of London police announcing a plan to put an additional 6-hundred armed officers on patrol. Typically police in the U-K do not carry guns.

British authorities are urging the public to be vigilant following Islamic State terror attacks across Europe.

The investigation is ongoing.

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