The British Museum was cleared out following a stabbing incident that occurred within the queue.
he British Museum has been evacuated after a stabbing, which witnesses claim took place in the queue. Metropolitan Police said a man has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after a man was stabbed at around 10am on Tuesday directly outside the museum, at the junction of Great Russell Street and Museum Street.
A man has been hospitalised in a major trauma centre with a stab wound to the arm, but his condition is not yet known.
The force said it was “an isolated incident and there is no outstanding risk to the public” and it is not being treated as terrorism-related, with a crime scene tent erected at the scene.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a middle-aged victim “dripping blood everywhere” and “screaming” after an attack in the queue along the busy street Great Russell Street outside the museum, while the attacker allegedly fled before being arrested on a nearby street.
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02:29 PM BST
Victim 'screaming' and 'dripping blood everywhere'
The manager of a nearby souvenir shop, who wished to remain anonymous, said he saw a middle-aged man stabbed while he waited in the queue for the museum on Great Russell Street not far from the Museum Tavern pub.
He attempted to escape and was “dripping blood everywhere”, the witness claimed.
The male attacker was arrested by police a short distance away on Coptic Street, he said.
A local businesswoman heard the victim “screaming” and saw a trail of blood along the street in the aftermath of the attack.
A police tent was erected on the pavement on the museum side of Great Russell Street, just metres from the entrance.
02:14 PM BST
Moment 'lockdown' hit British Museum
The site of Tuesday morning’s incidents houses a permanent collection of more than eight million works, making it the largest in the world, Alex Barton reports.
Simon Keller, a 44-year-old father of two from New York, who is visiting family in London this week, was planning on going to the museum on Tuesday afternoon.
He and his family decided against going in because the queues and the commotion were too much. Mr Keller told The Telegraph:
I’m with my two kids and partner and visiting the museum today is not worth the wait and the worry.
We got an alert on the way here and saw there was a lockdown.
I suspect it was an isolated incident and it looks like it was.
Now the queue to get back in is so huge because of it, we are going to have to find something else to do.
We are from New York, so this sort of stuff isn’t too much of a surprise.
02:10 PM BST
10 police cars and fire engine
Atarbucks employee who works opposite the main entrance said 10 police cars and a fire truck arrived but didn’t use sirens.
Police asked the coffee shop employees for a bucket of water after the incident unfolded, it is claimed. The woman, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph’s Alex Barton:
I saw the police putting the tape up after it happened.
There were 10 police cars and a fire engine. Lots of people - lots of police officers.
Then they put up a small blue tent and tape up about just outside the entrance but now it’s gone.
They asked us for a bucket of water, but I’m not sure what they did with it.
The police told us someone had been attacked in the queue and they closed the road because of it. They didn’t know who the man was or why it happened.
People were still queuing after the stabbing, we didn’t hear anything when it happened and people just kept queuing to get in.
Until the police told them to move, they stayed in the line in the rain.
