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Teenage Boy Killed in London Sword Attack

Footage posted on social media appears to show a man wearing a yellow hooded top carrying a large blade. (The Telegraph)
Footage posted on social media appears to show a man wearing a yellow hooded top carrying a large blade. (The Telegraph)
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Teenage Boy Killed in London Sword Attack

Footage posted on social media appears to show a man wearing a yellow hooded top carrying a large blade. (The Telegraph)
Footage posted on social media appears to show a man wearing a yellow hooded top carrying a large blade. (The Telegraph)

A 14-year-old boy was killed and four other people were injured after a stabbing in London on Tuesday involving a man with a sword.

Police said they did not believe the incident was terrorism-related and there was no ongoing threat to the wider community.

Police tasered and arrested the man after the incident near Hainault in east London. Video footage showed a man wielding what appeared to be a sword.

"It is with great sadness that I confirm one of those injured, a 14-year-old boy, has died. He was taken to hospital after being stabbed and sadly died shortly afterwards," London's Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell said.

He said it was not believed to be a targeted attack.

London's Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe told reporters a 36-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was currently in hospital, having suffered injuries when his van collided with a building.

Two members of the public and two police officers were in hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The two police officers had stab wounds requiring surgery.

Britain's King Charles paid tribute to those affected and praised the courage of the emergencies services that helped to contain the incident.

"His (King Charles) thoughts and prayers are with all those affected - in particular, the family of the young victim who has lost his life," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said. 

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Ocalan is Reported to Suggest he Might be Ready to End Insurgency

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
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Ocalan is Reported to Suggest he Might be Ready to End Insurgency

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) display flags with a portrait of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo

The jailed leader of Türkiye's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has been quoted as indicating he may be prepared to call for militants to lay down arms, after a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged him to end the group's decades-old insurgency.

Two parliamentarians from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party met Ocalan for talks on his island prison on Saturday, in the first such visit nearly in a decade, Reuters reported.

DEM requested the visit after a key Erdogan ally expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan's PKK.

"I am ready to take (the) necessary positive step and make the call," Ocalan was quoted as saying, according to a statement by the MPs on Sunday.

Ocalan did not specify what the call would be but his comments came after the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli, said Ocalan should make a call for the militants to lay down arms.

DEM requested the visit soon after Bahceli expanded on a proposal to end the conflict, suggesting in October that Ocalan should announce an end to the insurgency in exchange for the possibility of his release.

Erdogan described Bahceli's initial proposal as a "historic window of opportunity" but has not spoken of any peace process.
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago.

Recent developments in Syria and Gaza showed that the solution for the Kurdish issue has become "undelayable,” Ocalan was also quoted as saying, adding that opposition and Parliament should also contribute to the new process, in a veiled reference to possible legal amendments.

One major development in the region has been the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria this month. Türkiye has repeatedly said there would be no place for the Kurdish YPG, which Ankara sees as an extension of the PKK, in Syria's future.

"I am also qualified and determined to make the necessary positive contribution to the new paradigm that Mr. Bahceli and Mr. Erdogan have empowered," Ocalan said, according to the DEM statement.

Türkiye and its Western allies deem the PKK a terrorist group. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centered on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.