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A knife-wielding attacker stabbed two college students to death on the streets of the English city of Nottingham, then stabbed a middle-aged man, stole his truck and ran over three pedestrians in a horrific rampage early Tuesday morning, police said.
Police have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murder. Nottinghamshire Police said detectives believed the perpetrator acted alone and investigators were working with counter-terrorism officers to try to establish a motive.
“This is a horrific and tragic accident that claimed the lives of three people,” said Police Chief Kate Mennell. A man who was among those injured in the hit-and-run accident was taken to hospital in critical condition. Among the dead were two 19-year-old students from the University of Nottingham.
“All of Nottingham are deeply shocked and saddened by the deaths of two of our students,” Vice-Chancellor Shearer West said in a statement. A graduation party scheduled for Tuesday night has been cancelled. Many college students joined a vigil at St Peter’s Church, downtown, late Tuesday to mourn the victims. Some lit candles, while others put flowers under the altar.
The knife attack on the students took place around dawn in an area close to the student residence a short distance from the university’s Jubilee Campus. A caller reported that two stabbing victims were lying in the street. Mennell said police believe the attacker then killed a man in his 50s and got into his truck.
His body was found on a different street more than a mile away from the first crime scene. About 90 minutes after the initial attack, witnesses were horrified when they watched the truck crash into bystanders and get away. Lynn Haggett was on her way to work when a white van pulled up next to her at 5:30 in the morning. She saw the driver looking in his mirror and saw a police car slowly approaching from behind without the emergency lights on. She said the driver then sped up and hit a man and woman on a street corner. He went straight to them.
Haggett told reporters. “The woman went on the sidewalk, the man went up in the air, and there was such an explosion, I wish I’d never seen it. It really shook me.”
“Then the driver sped away in the city center with the police on his tail,” she added. Haggett said the injured man appeared to have been shot in the head but was helped with his feet. The woman was sitting on the sidewalk and seemed to be doing well. Police said a third passenger was injured on the same street. Mennell said two of the hit-and-run victims sustained minor injuries. “We believe these three incidents are all linked, and we have one man under arrest,” the police chief said.
“We are keeping an open mind as we investigate the circumstances surrounding these incidents and are working alongside counter-terrorism police to establish the facts, as we normally do in these types of circumstances.” After stopping the truck, the officers subjected the suspect to a taser before arresting him.
Ken Brady, a student at the University of Nottingham, said he was awakened by loud shouts of “armed police” and heard what sounded like a gunshot outside. He said he saw officers with tasers and a man being dragged out of the truck and pinned to the ground. “I saw him get caught trying to fight back,” Brady told British broadcaster GB News. “When they opened the truck, I saw a big knife being pulled out and then immediately, that’s when the police closed both ways.”
Pictures showed a dent in the car’s hood and cracks in the windshield. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the incident as a terrible accident and demanded that the police be given time to investigate the crime. Sunak said: “My thoughts are with the injured and the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives.”
Nottingham is a city of about 350,000 people, 175 kilometers north of London, and pictures on social media showed police, some carrying rifles, standing near cordons in several locations in the city centre, and the city’s tram network said it had suspended all services. . .
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