A man appeared in a London court on Tuesday charged with attempted murder after an 11-year-old girl was stabbed in one of the capital's busiest tourist areas.

Ioan Pintaru, 32, appeared before Westminster Magistrates' Court, which heard that he was a Romanian citizen with no fixed address.

The girl was with her mother when she was attacked in Leicester Square on Monday.

The prosecutor said Pintaru had "approached the girl, placed her into a headlock, he's then stabbed her eight times to the body."

She was taken to hospital with serious but not life threatening injuries. She was wounded in the face, shoulder, wrist and neck area, the prosecutor said.

Police have said they do not believe that the suspect knew the girl.

Pintaru was remanded in custody to appear in court again on September 10.

The attack outside top brand stores in the central London square came two weeks after a mass stabbing in Southport, northwest England, in which three girls were killed and eight children and two adults wounded.

The attack sparked riots across England, after rumours spread online that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. (AFP)