A man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after a stabbing outside of the Home Office on Thursday.

Armed police were called to Marsham Street outside the Home Office building to a report of a man with a knife at around 1 p.m., with Metropolitan Police Service firearms officers attending shortly thereafter.

Police found a man in his 60s suffering from knife injuries, which the London Evening Standard reported were to his face, with the victim being taken to hospital.

A statement from Scotland Yard confirmed officers detained a 29-year-old man, near to the scene at Smith Square who was arrested on suspicion of GBH and possession of CS spray.

“Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the incident. We are keeping an open mind about any possible motive at this early stage,” the Met said in its statement.

The newspaper reported that the victim had staggered into the Home Office reception and reported being attacked on the street. He is believed to be Home Office security guard.

A Home Office worker, 70-year-old Keith Thorpe, told The Sun: “He was bleeding profusely from his face. He was covering his eye quite a bit and blood had dropped all down his face.”

Also on Thursday, police launched a murder investigation after an 18-year-old man was stabbed to death in Lambeth, south London, with a 17-year-old male being arrested on suspicion of murder.

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a number of members to increase law and order across the country, including expanding stop and search in the war against knife crime, 20,000 new police officers, and 10,000 extra prison places.

The attack comes as London continues to experience rising crime under the mayoralship of Sadiq Khan, with assaults happening in broad daylight and places hitherto considered safe, including a young man being stabbed in a coffee shop in broad daylight last year, while violent crime on public transport is up 43 per cent.

Statistics published in November 2018 revealed that children were most at risk of getting stabbed in the hours after leaving school.

On Wednesday, the Home Office launched an anti-knife crime campaign using testimonies of young people affected by knife crime printed on chicken shop takeaway boxes. The scheme was criticised by leftists for being “racist” and “offensive”, despite a report published days earlier warning criminal gangs were targetting and recruiting youngsters at chicken shops, with children’s charities confirming the tactic was being used to lure minors into crime.