A police officer came close to losing her hand in the sword attack in Hainault, north-east London, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, has said.
A 14-year-old boy was killed and four other people were injured during the incident on Tuesday.
Rowley told LBC: “The first thing you have to say is for the parents involved, who’ve lost their 14-year-old, and that is just horrific, and it’s everyone’s worst nightmare. I’m sure we’re all thinking about them.
“We were on the ground in 12 minutes, and he was detained after 22 minutes. Obviously some of the first contacts led to officers being very severely injured.”
He said one male officer had serious injuries to his hand, while a female colleague was in surgery for several hours on Tuesday after sustaining “horrifically serious” wounds to her arm.
“People say officers run towards danger. What you’ve actually seen on some of the videos that are sort of around social media and on new sites such as your own, you actually see what that really looks like. You’ve got officers running towards someone who is waving a sword,” Rowley said.