FOUR people were stabbed at an employment centre in Kent yesterday when a woman went on the rampage armed with knives and screwdrivers.
Mr Simon Bridge (24), an unemployed electrician, was taken to hospital with a large kitchen knife embedded up to the hilt in his head, but police said the blade bounced off his skull and lodged in the scalp.
The most seriously injured victim, a 49 year old man on the staff of the centre at Bexleyheath, Kent, was last night undergoing surgery for a "substantial" upper arm injury. Two women - a 63 year old staff member and a 34 year old member of the public - were expected to go home after treatment for minor injuries.
A 27 year old woman from Bexleyheath, arrested at the centre, was also in hospital under police guard having stitches in hand and wrist injuries suffered in the incident. Detectives did not expect to interview her yesterday.
Mr Bridge's girlfriend, Ms Tara: Hill (20), said: "He told me that hem went to join the queue in the DSS [Department of Social Services] office and a woman came from behind and attacked him. He said it didn't feel like someone was stabbing him in the head - more like someone punching him."
The woman "was just going completely mental and going for anyone", she said after visiting her boyfriend at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, where he was being kept overnight for observation.
Mr Bridge, of Welling, south east London, went to the centre to sign on after the Christmas holidays and look for work.
Ms Hill said she was at her desk at an insurance office a few yards from the centre when she heard he had been stabbed. She ran into the street to find him being tended by an off duty fireman and an elderly woman. "Simon was conscious but he still had a knife sticking out of his head," she said. The weapon was removed by doctors at the hospital.
Det Insp Brian George said a woman first attacked members of the public and then roamed around the building attacking other people. "She had apparently visited the place yesterday and come back today, but for what reason we don't know."
Supt Philip Selwood said he did not know whether the woman was targeting anyone in particular and could not comment on suggestions she had been resident in a mental institution.