Huge manhunt for female scaffolder who "whacked male construction workers over the head with a heavy duty 450mm (17 inch) spanner in a fit of rage on a very loud and very busy North London building site". A massive city-wide hunt is on for Laura Jillian Hunt, a 23 year old CISRS scaffolding technici
Huge manhunt for female scaffolder who "whacked male construction workers over the head with a heavy duty 450mm (17 inch) spanner in a fit of rage on a very loud and very busy North London building site". A massive city-wide hunt is on for Laura Jillian Hunt, a 23 year old CISRS scaffolding technician, who, in a fit of rage, reportedly carried out a "very very violent impromptu mass attack on workers".
The rampage took place on a busy, loud and large multi-building construction site, where work had already been taking place. Reports suggest construction workers on a different part of the site had reportedly got into an altercation with Hunt and another scaffolder - both of whom had been working near a completely different building. It was then that Hunt "unleashed absolute carnage", grabbing the extra large heavy duty 450mm Schreiber-Müller spanner from a different part of the site and violently hitting several workers over the head.
The attack happened shortly before rush hour and passerby 24 year old Accounts Assistant Timothy J. Yates said "it was crazy; you could see everything, but there was really loud drilling on other parts of the site, so it kind of masked the sounds of all the yelling. Loads of people were scrambling to pin down the crazy woman, but she just kept violently whacking everybody with the huge tool. She must have been on drugs or something."
A city-wide manhunt is now underway, with "a huge amount of police resources directed to apprehend Hunt", who Superintendent Niall Phelps referred to as "mentally unwell and extremely dangerous". "I gave spoken with other senior collegues in other areas, including with the Commissioner, Sir Charles Trent - who is well aware of the situation - and we have all agreed that [Hunt's] capture is at the top of our list of priorities right now."
The Home Secretary, Ben Swanley Sr, also confirned he was "monitoring the situation closely", but agreed with the Metropolitan Police's assessment that the rampage "was not being considered an act of terror". "The terror threat level still remains the same," Swanley said, "and whilst this violent rampage was very serious, the police have already declared a major incident, but it is isolated and not terror-related." It is unclear if specialist arned officers will also be involved in the city-wide manhunt for Hunt, but officers with tasers are understood to be part of the hunt for Hunt.
Comments on Twitter have been vicious, with one user tweeting "See - this is why women should never be allowed on building sites; probably broke a nail and went apeshit." The tweet has been retweeted more than 72,000 times already.
Laura Jillian Hunt's Facebook page says she dropped out of a Mansfield secondary school during her AS Levels to train as an apprentice scaffolder instead after friends say she "feared she would fail her AS Levels". A close family member say she has "had run-ins with the law before", after "physically assaulting her ex-boyfriend on more than one occassion, including during a holiday abroad in Magaluf."