A 13-year-old boy is accused of stabbing a pupil in the neck with a kitchen knife in front of numerous children in a north-west London classroom, a court has heard.

The child sustained three stab wounds, a spinal fracture and injuries to the neck and hands that required surgery, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told on Thursday.

The former pupil is accused of stabbing another child in the playground and spraying ant spray in the face of a third, during the incident at Kingsbury High School, Brent, on Tuesday.

Less than a minute passed between the first and second knife attacks, the court heard.

The defendant filmed the entire attack on his mobile phone but there is no suggestion it was uploaded to social media, the hearing was told.

The teenager, who has not been named because of his age, appeared in court on Thursday wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit.

Two family members sat on the seats in front of the dock and the defendant spoke softly to confirm his name and date of birth.

He is accused of the attempted murder of two boys aged 12 and 13, and unlawfully and maliciously administering a noxious thing to a third child.

The boy has also been charged with possession of a knife on school premises without good reason or lawful authority.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring remanded him into a youth detention facility to appear at the Old Bailey on February 27.

Prosecutor Kathryn Selby told the hearing that at just gone midday, the boy arrived at the classroom door carrying ant spray and the knife.

He allegedly sprayed the ant spray in a child’s face before stabbing the other boy, the prosecution said.

Numerous children and a teacher were present, the court heard.

Ms Selby said he then walked downstairs and stabbed another child in the neck in a playground area, leaving a 3cm wound.

The conditions of two alleged stab victims are not thought to be life-threatening but whether they are life-changing is uncertain, the prosecution said.

The defendant was at large for around three hours before being arrested near a mosque.

Temporary Commander Helen Flanagan, from Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “These are extremely serious charges against a young boy and we continue to support the victims and their families, as well as the wider school community, following this shocking incident.

“While we have now charged the boy with these offences, our investigation is ongoing and detectives will continue to carry out inquiries in the local area.

“We are working closely with local policing colleagues in the Brent area and I would also like to thank the school and the wider local community for their support in recent days.”

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.

“We have worked closely with the police as they have carried out their investigation.

“We remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.

“It is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”

Three men were “executed” in a Reading park by a “ruthlessly efficient” terrorist in less than one minute, a court has heard.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, shouted “Allahu akhbar” during the violent spree which left teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist David Wails, 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, dead.

Three other people – Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan – were also injured before Saadallah threw away the knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

The failed Libyan asylum seeker had launched the attacks in Forbury Gardens, Reading, as the victims were enjoying a summer evening on June 20 last year after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed.

Roger Smith, who was among the victims’ group, saw Mr Ritchie-Bennett “just going over sideways, like a tree being felled” as he was stabbed in the neck.

He said it “all happened really quickly” and was like a “weird dream”.

Another eyewitness, Andrew Cafe, said: “I saw him holding the knife and as he was charging towards us he shouted ‘Allah Akbar’.”

As Saadallah was detained, a Muslim member of the public told him: “You have nothing to do with Islam, bastard,” adding: “I am just livid.”

Following his arrest, Saadallah initially said he wanted to plead guilty to the “jihad that I done” but later feigned mental illness in police interviews.

Saadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders and appeared at the Old Bailey on Tuesday for the start of his sentencing.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Saadallah aimed to kill as many people as possible in the name of violent jihad.

She said: “In just half a minute, the defendant was able to inflict catastrophic injuries to three people and serious injuries to three others.

“The prosecution’s case was that this was not an accident. This was not a frenzied attack by someone wielding a knife in a random, uncontrolled manner.

“The defendant was aiming to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time to allow him to kill as many people as possible.

“In effect, the killings of Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, David Wails and James Furlong were highly effective executions.”

Mr Ritchie-Bennett and Mr Furlong both suffered single stab wounds to the neck, and Mr Wails was stabbed once to the back.

Ms Morgan said the defendant was “ruthlessly efficient” in his actions, having planned and executed the attack with “determination and precision”.

The court heard that Saadallah, who arrived in Britain in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.

Since living in Britain he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and last year.

He developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse, the court was told.

In 2017, the “impressionable and volatile” defendant associated at HMP Bullingdon with prominent radical preacher Omar Brooks, who is associated with the banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.

An examination of his mobile phone revealed his interest in extremist material, including the flag of the so-called Islamic State and Jihadi John.

The court was told Saadallah was released from HMP Bullingdon on June 5, just days before the attack.

He then researched the location for his attack online and carried out reconnaissance on June 17, the court heard.

On June 18, he was in contact with his probation officer who alerted his mental health team over concern about comments Saadallah had made about “magic”.

Saadallah contacted the crisis team himself, but when they visited him on June 19, he did not open the door.

Police visited him the same day, prompted by concerns from his brother, but Saadallah insisted he was “alright”, while standing near a knife he had bought from Morrisons supermarket.

The court heard that a psychiatrist had since concluded that the events of June 20 were “unrelated to the effects of either mental disorder or substance misuse”.

Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned the hearing until Wednesday and said the sentencing would conclude on Monday.

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A U.S. woman was killed and five other people injured by a man with suspected mental health issues who went on a rampage with a knife in central London, but police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related.

Armed police were called at 10:33 p.m. (2133 GMT) after a Norwegian man of Somali origin with a knife started to attack people in London’s Russell Square, an elegant park near the site of a 2005 suicide bombing.

The victim, a U.S. citizen in her 60s, was treated at the scene but pronounced dead a short time later.

Another woman and four men were treated in hospital, though three of them were later discharged. Nationals from Australia, Britain, Israel and the United States were among those hurt.

“All of the work we have done so far increasingly points to this tragic incident as having been triggered by mental health issues,” said London Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.

“We believe this was a spontaneous attack and that the victims were selected at random,” said Rowley, who is Britain’s most senior anti-terrorism officer.

“So far we have found no evidence of radicalisation that would suggest that the man in our custody is in any way motivated by terrorism,” said Rowley. Initially he said that terrorism was a line of inquiry.

Police, who arrived within six minutes of being called, used a Taser electric shock gun while detaining the 19-year-old suspect. He was later formally arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police cordoned off the southern part of the square, which sits at the heart of London’s university area and is close to landmarks such as the British Museum, for several hours as forensics officers examined the attack scene.

Later, workmen hosed blood off the pavement.

“SEVERE THREAT”

London’s Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, called for vigilance and urged Londoners to report anything suspicious to the police‎, who increased their presence in the capital.

“The safety of all Londoners is my number one priority and my heart goes out to the victims of the incident in Russell Square and their loved ones,” he said.

Just hours before the Russell Square attack, London’s police chief said that he would deploy an additional 600 armed officers across the capital to protect against attacks.

London counter-terrorism police chiefs have previously warned that Islamic State was seeking to radicalise vulnerable people with mental health issues to carry out attacks. In some operations, police commanders have taken advice from specialist psychologists.

Islamist militants hit London with coordinated suicide bombings on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people. One of the bombs detonated on a bus close to Russell Square.

Since then, dozens of plots have been foiled and there have been smaller-scale attacks, such as the beheading of an off-duty soldier by militant Islamists in a London street in May 2013.

A man who attacked passengers at a London underground train station in December was jailed for life earlier this month. The judge said the attacker was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the offence but may have been motivated by events in Syria.