Screams echo through a street in Nottingham early this morning. It is the prelude to a day that people in the city in central England probably only know from crime series on television. Sirens can be heard everywhere. Many streets are closed, trams are standing still, buses are being diverted. The police speak of a “serious incident”. It soon became clear that three people were killed and three injured.
What exactly happened was still not entirely clear in the evening. One thing is certain: a 31-year-old man is suspected of murder who was stopped at the wheel of a van and overpowered with an electric shock device, a police spokeswoman said in the evening. He remains in custody.
Investigators are not assuming there are any other suspects. According to the police, the alleged perpetrator stabbed two 19-year-olds in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The woman and man were students, the university had previously confirmed.
Another man who was stabbed and found elsewhere downtown was said to be between 50 and 60 years old, police said. According to initial knowledge, the alleged perpetrator stole his van and used it to injure three other people. One person is in critical condition, the spokeswoman said. The other two were slightly injured.
Search for the motive
She initially gave no information on the possible motive. “We are still in the early stages of the investigation and need to find out exactly what the motives behind this attack were,” the spokeswoman said. “We are keeping an eye on all possibilities and working closely with the anti-terrorist unit,” she added. There were searches at several residential addresses, but no other people were arrested. She stressed that downtown Nottingham is now safe again.
However, the shock in the city with around 330,000 inhabitants runs deep. Many young people in particular gathered in the evening at a vigil in St. Peter’s Church in the heart of the city to commemorate the dead.
It almost seemed as if all of Nottingham had become a crime scene. The locations where the bodies were found and the other locations of the events were spread all over the city center. An eyewitness told the BBC that he heard cries for help and then looked out the window to see a black-clad gunman stabbing a young man and woman.
The two were on their way home from a party, a fellow student told the Telegraph newspaper. “They were five minutes from their home and they got stabbed by some guy.” The university prom that was scheduled for that evening was cancelled.
According to City Council Chairman David Mellen, those injured by the van were people who had been waiting at a bus stop. The driver was being followed by police cars and acted with intent, eyewitness Lynn Haggitt told the BBC. “I’m all shaky, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“He fought quite a bit”
The arrest of the alleged perpetrator was recorded on a shaky mobile phone video. It is said to have happened about an hour and a half after the first emergency call. “They dragged him out of the car and he fell to the ground. He struggled quite a bit,” student Demi Ojolow told PA. Photos from the scene showed a van with the door open. The radiator has dents, the windshield is cracked – it is unclear whether it was caused by bullets. Local residents say they heard gunshots. A backpack lay on the floor.
Authorities called on witnesses to come forward and provide footage from surveillance cameras and dash cams.
A few hundred meters from one of the crime scenes, armed and partially masked emergency services stormed a building at noon. The property has long been vacant, said Mohammed Qasim, who works at a hair salon next door. There was a raid there last year. The building has recently been put up for sale. “We haven’t seen anyone since then,” Qasim said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked the emergency services for their work. Interior Minister Suella Braverman was “shocked and saddened”. “Our city is devastated by the deaths of three people this morning,” said the three opposition Labor MPs for the central English city in a joint statement. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences.
