A UK teenager has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a six-year-old boy was thrown from the tenth floor of the Tate Modern, a museum in London.
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The child was found on a fifth-floor roof and is currently in hospital in a critical condition.
The Metropolitan police have confirmed that a 17-year-old boy was arrested. He was found by police on the viewing platform from which the victim was allegedly thrown.
“We treated a person at the scene and took them to hospital as a priority,” a London Ambulance Service spokesperson told the BBC.
A representative for London police told media that there was “nothing to suggest [the suspect] is known to the victim”.
Nobody being allowed in or out of the Tate Modern for the last 20 minutes. Plenty of police and ambulances arriving, and a helicopter just landed. Not clear what’s happened pic.twitter.com/tRINVIbL7F
— Greg Ritchie (@greg_ritchie) August 4, 2019
Witnesses report seeing a woman shout “my son, that’s my son” as the child fell five floors to the roof below. Gallery visitors were kept inside as police and emergency services worked.
The Tate Modern was the UK’s most popular tourist attraction in 2018, with over 5 million visitors. A sign was placed outside the museum confirming it would be closed for the rest of the day.
“Tate is working closely with the police to help with their investigations,” it reads. “All our thoughts are with the child and his family.”
