Three women from the UAE were brutally attacked in their room at a posh London hotel by a hammer-wielding man and were in hospital with severe head injuries, police said today.
The women, all in their 30s, were wealthy tourists from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), putting up in a room on the seventh floor of the four-star Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch.
Three children were sleeping in an adjoining room in the early hours of yesterday morning when the brutal attack took place but they were unharmed.
Police said a single male suspect entered their room.
They said he was disturbed when some of the occupants of the room woke up and the three women were subsequently assaulted with a hammer.
The condition of one woman was “critical” and the assault was being treated as attempted murder, the Metropolitan police said.
A spokesman for the Guoman group, which owns the 1,000-room hotel, said: “All of our thoughts are with the families of the injured women. We are doing everything we can to support the police with their enquiry, but it is too early to comment any further.”
Scotland Yard has launched a nationwide manhunt to trace the attacker who was not a guest at the hotel.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Chalmers said: “This was an unusually violent attack on three women and I am very keen to speak with anyone who has in or around hotel between 1am and 2am on Sunday morning.”
Police are keeping an open mind regarding the motive for the attack.
One line of inquiry is also that the assault came after a bungled robbery by a thief.