Elderly woman beheaded in London backyard, suspect arrested

An elderly woman was reportedly found beheaded in the back garden of a property in Edmonton on Thursday.

The 82-year-old victim, Palmira Silva, was found by officers who had been called to the area after a man dressed in black held a machete and wandered in back gardens while yelling and screaming, The Guardian reports.

The 25-year-old suspect was eventually cornered and tasered by Metropolitan police. While trying to subdue the suspect an officer suffered a broken wrist.

The suspect also might have attempted to attack two other people before murdering Silva. "At this stage we believe they were both able to get out of the house without injury," a spokesman said.

According to BBC New, police did not know about the murder when arriving on the scene, with calls saying that they believed he had attacked an animal. Due to the machete-like weapon, police did their best to keep residents away and the suspect's attention on them.

"Officers had to everything they could to make other people safe and evacuate houses and put their lives on the line to make sure this individual did not cause further harm."

Though the investigation is still early, police do not believe the murder to be a terrorist attack.