A man has been taken to hospital after stabbing himself with a sharp object at Heathrow airport in west London.

The passenger, who is not believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries, had passed through the airport’s security checks, and started cutting himself near the departure lounges in the airport’s Terminal 5 at 5.45pm on Wednesday.

Witnesses said the man stabbed himself in the head outside the Fortnum & Mason store, with an object he picked up after passing through passport, security and customs checks. Horrified passengers are said to have tried to stop the man from inflicting further injuries on himself.



The Guardian has been told that two airline employees disarmed the man before police, paramedics and airport security arrived. A Heathrow spokesman confirmed that no other passengers were injured in the incident and that there had not been a breach of security.

One Twitter user said shortly before 6pm they had witnessed a man constantly “stabbing himself in his head with what look like a knife”.



Neerav Valiram (@neeravval) Sitting at Fortnum and Mason Heathrow T5 when a man runs past stabbing himself in the head - security has contained the situation

A passenger, who did not want to be named, said he heard people “screaming and running” as he was heading to gate 19 to catch a flight to Aberdeen. He said: “I quite quickly saw a Middle Eastern or north African looking gentleman constantly stabbing the side of his head with a knife and blood all down him.

“People were trying to stop him without getting too close. The chap was muttering words I did not understand and was very distressed. He never tried to attack anyone apart from himself so I don’t think it was a terrorist attack. The person sitting in the seat next to me said that the chap took a knife from the seafood restaurant beside the south gates about 20 metres from where I first saw him.”

He claimed that police and airport security staff “took about five minutes to arrive, which I don’t think was quick enough”.

Tamara Lynch was on her way home to Manchester from Heathrow when a security guard rushed past her as she walked to gate 22. She said: “I didn’t realise what was going on at first. I came round the corner and there was this poor guy with five or six security guards all around him.”

She said the man appeared to be foreign. “He was stood with his back to the shop window and was stabbing himself in the neck and he opened his jacket up and was trying to stab himself in the chest. I couldn’t see what he was using but he was really trying to ram it in. There was blood all the way down the side of his face and down his shirt.

“He then ran towards me and one of the security guards jumped on top of him and pinned him down. He was very distressed but he wasn’t threatening anyone else.

“My friend got really upset and started crying. There was a poor woman who was lying down on the floor on top of her children trying to protect them. You can understand why with everything that has gone on, especially with the stabbing in London. That did cross my mind.”



A Heathrow spokesman said there had been an incident with a passenger who had stabbed himself and there was no risk to other passengers. He said: “I can confirm that there was no breach of security. The passenger appears to have picked up the knife in one of the airside departure lounge shops but it would not have been a really sharp object.”

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: “Police were called to a shop at Heathrow Terminal 5 to a report that a man had injured himself with a knife.” Officers attended along with paramedics and the man was taken to a west London hospital with injuries which were not life-threatening. “A crime scene is in place while officers investigate. At this early stage no other person is being sought in connection with the incident.”