A man just attacked three Jewish women in Stamford Hill and police fear more victims

A man has just been arrested after three Jewish women were attacked in north-east London.

This happened two days ago, around 1:40pm, on Clapton Common, in Stamford Hill, Hackney.

One of the women was pushing her baby in a pram at the time.

So here's what happened. Volunteers from Shomrim, a Jewish neighbourhood watch group, got to the scene first. They detained a man before police arrived.

Officers then arrested a 33-year-old man. He's accused of racially-aggravated common assault.

All three women are believed to have suffered minor injuries.

Now, why do police think this was targeted?

Well, according to Shomrim, the victims said they believed they were targeted because they were Jewish. They say the attacker appeared to go only after Jewish women.

There's video of one of the attacks. It's been shared widely online. It shows a man running down Upper Clapton Road. He punches a woman pushing a pram, twice. Then he runs off, chased by two bystanders.

Shomrim says its volunteers reached the scene about 30 seconds after the first call. They say they saw a second woman get punched twice in the face. That left her with significant bruising, and Shomrim says it was caught on CCTV.

Here's where the accounts don't match.

The Metropolitan Police's own statement says the man was arrested on suspicion of racially-aggravated common assault. But Shomrim's own account describes it as racially and religiously aggravated grievous bodily harm. Both can't be the final charge. The exact charge hasn't been confirmed. This article goes with the Met's own quoted figure.

Chief Inspector Erica Crawshaw, from the Metropolitan Police, says quote "an alarming and distressing incident". She thanked Shomrim for detaining a suspect before officers got there.