Police at scene of stabbing in Manchester
Police at scene of stabbing in ManchesterReuters

Police arrested a man on terror charges on Friday after a mass stabbing at a shopping center in Manchester, northwest England, that left five people injured, AFP reports.

The man in his 40s was "lunging and attacking people" with a large knife in the Arndale shopping center, Police Chief Russ Jackson said.

"The man attacked people around him and we understand five people were injured by him," Jackson told a press conference.

"Although the injuries are nasty, we are told that, thankfully, none are life-threatening," he added.

The suspect was detained within five minutes and initially arrested for assault, before this was changed to an accusation of preparing and instigating an act of terrorism.

"We do not know the motivation for this terrible attack. It appears random, is certainly brutal and of course extremely frightening for anyone who witnessed it," Jackson said.

Nobody else was believed to be involved, nor is there any wider threat at the moment, he added.

Two women -- one of them aged 19 -- were taken to hospital with stab wounds and were said to be in a stable condition following the attack.

A man in his 50s was also being treated while the fourth victim, a woman in her 40s, did not require treatment, police said, according to AFP.

In a statement on Twitter, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "shocked by the incident in Manchester and my thoughts are with the injured and all those affected."

Manchester was also the city in which a 2017 suicide bombing took place after an Ariana Grande concert. 22 people were killed and 59 wounded in that attack.

In January, on New Year’s Eve, a knifeman who reportedly shouted “Allah” stabbed three people in at the Victoria Station in Manchester before being arrested.

Britain has been targeted by several terrorist attacks in recent years.

In June of 2017, three terrorists drove into passengers with a van on the London Bridge, then proceeded to stab people at the nearby Borough Market, where they were eliminated by security forces.

In April of that year, a terrorist was arrested near Parliament before he was able to carry out an attack.

In August of 2018, a 29-year-old British citizen originally from Sudan rammed his car into several people before crashing outside Britain's Parliament, injuring three.

The Arndale Center, where Friday’s attack took place, is near the Manchester Arena, where the Ariana Grande concert attack happened, and the railway station where the New Year’s Eve attack took place.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)