Three people have been stabbed in central London in what is believed to be a suspected phone robbery.
Police officers and London Ambulance Service (LAS) paramedics attended the scene in Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street Station, on Thursday morning.
Four people were treated at the scene, where witnesses reported seeing men with bloody faces on the ground.
A cordon was in place along the pavement outside an office building, while pieces of emergency medical equipment, scissors and what appeared to be band-aids lay on the ground.
Toby Hamand, a software engineer who was cycling to work, told the Guardian that he intervened in what initially appeared to be a scuffle before quickly realizing it was a robbery.
“By the time I showed up, a big one had already happened, sort of half on the road and half on the pavement, and I pushed my bike. There were about five or six people, but it became obvious that two of them were what you call ‘bad actors’ who have bandanas covering their faces and noses, and hoods up,” he said.
“There was another guy in a t-shirt and a motorcycle helmet, who I later realized was one of the guys who got stabbed, and then there was a guy who tried to break it up and I said something to him like: ‘ Those guys are trying to commit a robbery’.
“One of the guys [with a bandana] tried to get on his bike – it could have been an electric one – and I hit his wheels when he was trying to leave and knocked it over because my thought process was to keep them there for the police to come.
“But then the second guy raised his hand to show me he had a knife. It was small – maybe not even the size of a penknife – and he said something like ‘Fuck off’ or ‘Step back’ and they just left.
A spokesman for the City of London Police said the incident was being treated as a suspected robbery involving a phone and was not terror-related.
A police statement said: “We received reports of three stabbings and one person pinned to the ground on Bishopsgate at 9.46am and officers arrived at the scene at 9.51am. Three victims were taken by LAS to a nearby hospital for treatment to give
“This is an ongoing situation, but is not being treated as terror-related.”
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said three ambulance crews, two advanced paramedics, two incident response officers, a clinical team manager and members of its tactical response unit were sent to the scene.
“Our crews treated four patients. We have now transported three of those patients to the hospital and one was evaluated and released at the scene.
Saye d Dukanwala, the owner of a nearby kiosk, said: “I was in my shop and heard some screams outside and saw people running.
“When I came outside, I saw about three or four people fighting. Then I saw four people on the ground with blood on their faces. People helped them.”
Footage on social media showed several emergency services vehicles on the road from the 22 Bishopsgate skyscraper. Its tenants are from the technology, sustainable energy, finance, asset management and professional services sectors.
A spokesperson said: “We are aware of a disturbing incident which took place this morning on Bishopsgate, close to our building, and our security team provided all necessary support to the police and emergency services while they were on the scene.”
Another witness said he saw two or three teenagers on bicycles looking at an elderly man before grabbing him.
The worker, who asked not to be named, told PA Media: “I saw two or three teenagers on bikes and they were chasing this middle-aged man, about 40 to 50, who was smartly dressed.
“The next thing I saw was this teenager grabbing this guy, this middle-aged man. Things escalated so quickly. The pedestrians got involved and tried to help the middle-aged man. I heard a lot of screaming and Screams were heard.The next minute a man on a white moped saw what was happening and jumped off, hitting himself.
“There was a fight with these teenagers. Out of nowhere the man on the moped was stabbed. The middle-aged man was already on the ground after being stabbed and another pedestrian was also injured, his head was injured. The teenagers then just left.”
He said the knife was wearing a fleece mask that people wear to keep warm.
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