Dhe early morning police sirens make residents and onlookers in Nottingham cringe. “I heard a police car speed past,” Glen Gretton told the PA news agency. “It went very fast, then there was another, then another. As more and more came, I knew something big was happening in the city.”
It soon became clear that three people had been killed and three others injured in the English city. A 31-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.
Chief Constable Kate Meynell speaks of a “terrible and tragic incident” in a first reaction. The crime scenes are all over the city. Two bodies were found on Ilkeston Road in the west just after 4:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. CEST) in the early morning. A local resident said he woke up to a police officer knocking on his door and asking for surveillance footage. But he didn’t notice anything.
Multiple attacks in different places
Another eyewitness told the BBC he heard screams and then looked out the window – and saw a black-clad gunman stabbed a young man and then a young woman multiple times.
Soon after, the police were called to another incident in the city center where a white van apparently tried to run over three people. They were taken to hospitals with injuries. Finally, another dead body is found on Magdala Road. The acts are probably related, as chief investigator Meynell says. There is about a mile (1.6 kilometers) between each crime scene.
After initially reporting a “serious incident”, the police presented the alleged perpetrator, a 31-year-old, in the morning. According to media, officers had located a white van, which could be the same vehicle as in the downtown incident, in north-west Nottingham. The area was cordoned off. A shaky video from a local resident is said to show three police officers arresting a man at around 5:30 a.m.
Eyewitness Lynn Haggitt told the BBC she saw a van run over two people – apparently on purpose, with police cars in pursuit. “I’m very shaky, I’ve seen something like this before,” she said.
There was initially no information about the background. According to information from the broadcaster Sky News, the police are currently investigating murder and not a terrorist act. Authorities called on witnesses to come forward and provide footage from surveillance cameras and “dashcams.” In many places, investigators were seen in full body suits.
Prime Minister Sunak expresses condolences
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked the emergency services for their work and quick response. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was “shocked and saddened”. “Our city is devastated by the deaths of three people this morning,” the opposition Labor party’s three MPs for the central English city said in a joint statement.
Several roads were closed in Nottingham, trams were stopped and bus routes were diverted. Authorities are urging people to avoid the center. A large shopping center is open though.
The Nottingham Open lawn tennis tournament, which is considered an important preparation for Wimbledon, continues as planned. The organizers emphasized that visitors should take more time to get there. The popular first division football club Nottingham Forest was shaken in a statement.
Nottingham is located in the geographic center of England, around 175 kilometers as the crow flies north of the capital London. About 324,000 people live in the city on the banks of the River Trent in the East Midlands area.
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