Police called to the Home Office after stabbing

A man has suffered life-threatening injuries in a stabbing outside the Home Office building in London, police have said.

Police were called to the area outside building in Marsham Street shortly after 1pm following a report of a man with a knife.

Upon arrival, a man was discovered with knife injuries and the London Ambulance Service also attended the scene.

Photos posted on Twitter show officers from the Metropolitan Police locking down the area as they dealt with the incident on Thursday afternoon.

Eyewitness Gareth Milner said he was eating his lunch on the wall outside the Home Office when "a number of armed police officers arrived on scene and entered the building".

"Some time later a gentleman with quite a bloodied face and with dressing pressed into his face was escorted out of the Home Office by paramedics," said Mr Milner, who works nearby for the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank.

"He was quiet and walking on his own feet, not being physically supported," he added.

Mr Milner said a police officer told him someone had been stabbed in the incident, but gave no further details.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted: "All my thoughts are with the victim and their family following horrific unprovoked knife attack on Marsham Street."

A man has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and taken to a police station.

"Enquiries are ongoing into the exact circumstances of the incident," the Met said in a statement.

There is no suggestion that the incident was terrorism-related, it added.