Man held after cathedral stabbing

The Dean of Lichfield Cathedral said it was a "very distressing incident"

A woman was stabbed inside Lichfield Cathedral and another outside in a nearby street.

A 42-year-old man from Erdington, Birmingham, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act after the attacks which happened on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said a 34-year-old woman from Burntwood, Staffordshire, was stabbed in the buttock inside the cathedral.

Another woman, 63, received "a slight knife injury" to her arm in The Windings footpath nearby, police said.

Officers said the man was arrested in the nearby Bulldog Lane within six minutes of the incident being reported.

'Very distressing'

He was taken into custody at Burton-upon-Trent police station and was later detained under the Mental Health Act.

The two women were taken by ambulance to Sutton Coldfield's Good Hope Hospital and were later discharged.

The Very Reverend Adrian Dorber, the Dean of Lichfield Cathedral, said: "This was a very distressing incident and we are only too grateful that prompt action by our verging staff and Staffordshire Police prevented it from becoming any worse.

"We extend our best wishes to the two ladies who were injured.

"We understand that this is a very rare and out of the ordinary incident.

"Lichfield is generally a safe and secure place to live and the cathedral will do its best to make sure that tradition is upheld."

Insp Jon Staite, of Staffordshire Police, said it was an isolated incident and that knife offences were rare in the county.