One dead after major stabbing incident in Birmingham but police say no terror link
- Violence broke out at about 12.30am in and around the Arcadian Centre, a popular venue filled with restaurants, nightclubs and bars
- The incident comes after several previous mass-casualty stabbings, including one in the Scottish city of Glasgow on June 26, in which six people were injured
One man was killed and two people were critically injured during a “random” stabbing attack lasting several hours in Britain’s second city of Birmingham, police said on Sunday.
Detectives said they were hunting one suspect after being called to reports of stabbings at four separate locations in the city centre between 12.30am and 2.30am. But they ruled out hate crime, gang violence and terrorism.
“It does appear to be random in terms of the people that were attacked,” said Chief Superintendent Steve Graham of West Midlands Police, adding that it was being treated as homicide.
Britain has been on high alert after two mass stabbings in London in the last year, which saw both perpetrators – convicted Islamic extremists released early from prison – shot dead by armed officers.
In June, a man was charged with murder after three people were killed in a park in Reading, west of London, in an attack investigated by counterterrorism police.
Six people were then injured, including a police officer, at a hotel housing asylum seekers in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Armed police shot dead the suspected attacker.