A man has said he fought off an alleged knife attacker at a Sainsbury’s Argos warehouse by hitting him on the head with a fire extinguisher.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to Marlowe Way, Croydon, on Thursday morning to reports of a stabbing at a warehouse.
Five people – a man in his 50s, two men in their 30s, and two men in their 20s – were taken to hospital with stab wounds. All those involved knew each other.
Their conditions were assessed as not life-threatening, police said.
A 30-year-old man was arrested nearby on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon. He was also taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Joseph Denton, 29, bravely tackled the knifeman and said he “sliced my finger open”.
Speaking at the scene, he told reporters: “I was there for an audit and the company basically started shouting and saying: ‘He’s back.'”
Mr Denton, who had a bandage around his little finger, added: “He didn’t say a word. He was trying to kill me and I’d never seen him before in my life.
“I tried to lock the door, but where I couldn’t I had to just confront him and fight him basically.
“I got him on the floor and decided to hit him with a fire extinguisher, which sort of calmed everything down.
“And then people rushed in because he was on the floor at that point, and then we all just carried on attacking him until he left.
“I didn’t really have a choice to be honest. There’s one door he was coming through. So, there’s nowhere to go anyway, so I had to confront him.
“He had his thing just stabbing at me like a serial killer.”
Mr Denton, from Rayleigh, Essex, said the knife was “the size of my face”, adding he thought it was a “Rambo knife about eight inches, with all jagged edges”.
Pictures from the scene show the distribution centre cordoned off with emergency services outside.
Staff there told the Metro: “A random guy came to the gate and said he worked for Argos.
“A security guard confronted him, tackled him and was stabbed. Then more staff tried to help and three more were stabbed.
“The security guard was stabbed in the arm – he’s ok.”
Another staff member described how the attack was “carnage” and a “total shock”.
They said: “The security guard was a hero. The attacker claimed he worked at Argos but he did it to trick his way through the security gate.”
Chief Superintendent Andy Brittain, local policing commander for south London, said: “Officers responded quickly and arrested the suspect within an hour. An investigation is now under way.
“Based on initial enquiries we believe all those involved knew each other. Therefore we do not believe there is any wider risk to the public.”
An Argos spokesman said: “We’re doing everything we can to support the teams on site and gathering as much information as possible to support the police with their investigation.”
London Ambulance Service added: “We were called at 10.21am this morning (Thursday, January 23) to reports of a stabbing incident in Marlowe Way, Croydon.
“We sent a number of resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, a paramedic in a fast response car, an incident response officer, members of our Tactical Response Unit and London’s Air Ambulance.
“Our crews treated five patients at the scene, before taking one to a London major trauma centre and four to other hospitals.”
