UK: Police arrest 27-year-old man in Birmingham stabbings case
The accused was arrested on the suspicion of murder and seven attempted murders.
The police in the United Kingdom on Monday arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with multiple stabbings in Birmingham, Reuters reported. One person was killed and seven others were injured in the attack which took place on Sunday.
The man killed in the attack was 23 years old. A man and a woman, aged 19 and 32, were seriously injured while five others sustained less critical wounds.
The accused was arrested on the suspicion of murder and seven attempted murder charges, AFP reported, citing the West Midlands Police.
The investigators said the stabbings took place at four different locations in the city and seemed to be connected, but were not believed to be a terror attack or related to a gang. “It does appear to be random in terms of the people that were attacked,” Birmingham Police Chief Steve Graham was quoted as saying by AFP. “This is being treated as a homicide.”
Graham added that their investigation would continue. “Officers worked through yesterday [Sunday] and into the early hours of this [Monday] morning in a bid to trace the man we believe responsible for these terrible crimes,” Graham added. “Clearly this is a crucial development but our investigation continues.”
The Birmingham police chief told Reuters that his team is yet to question eyewitnesses. “We still need to speak to any witnesses who saw what happened, or anyone who may have video footage of the incident or the attackers,” he said.
The suspect had carried out the attacks at Birmingham’s city centre for about an hour-and-a-half, according to The Guardian. The police had declared it a “major incident”.