Anti-terror cops swarm Nottingham after two people stabbed to death and three more mowed down with van

13 June 2023, 12:43 | Updated: 14 June 2023, 10:55

Counter terror police have raided two properties in Nottingham after three people were killed and three others injured in a ‘knife’ and van rampage in the city.

Police have said they are keeping an open mind about a possible motive for the attacks across the city in the small hours of today.

Raids took place this afternoon at Ilkeston Road in a student area of the city where a witness said he saw a young man and a young woman being stabbed by a black-clad attacker with a rucksack at 4am.

A third body was later found on Magdala Street. Police were then called to Milton Street, where a van hit three people who are now being treated in hospital.

Witnesses of the Nottingham rampage told of their horror as they saw people being stabbed and driven into and hearing "blood-curdling screams".

The witness to the first attack on Ilkeston road said: "Being a hot night, I had the window open and I just heard some awful, blood-curdling screams.

"It's often quite busy with people coming back from town and you get the usual boyfriend-girlfriend arguments, so I thought it was something like that."

Police said they were keeping an open mind over the motives for the killings, but added that they didn't think any other suspects were at large. Counter-terror officers are working at the scene.

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When he looked out of his window, he saw a "black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people".

"She was screaming 'Help!' I just wish I'd shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant," he told the BBC.

"I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing - four or five times. The lad collapsed in the middle of the road."

Armed police were later today seen carrying out a raid on a property on Ilkeston Road, where the first two victims were found dead in the street. Two women were seen being led into a police van by counter-terror police.

Mohammed Qasim and Nisar Ahmed, who work at Xclusive Hair Studio next door to a property on Ilkeston Road where uniformed officers are stood outside, said the property had been raided last year.

Mr Qasim said they were in the shop when the property was raided.

"The for sale sign has been up for about two-three months.

"We haven't seen anyone since," he said.

Another witness Joshua Fenner, told LBC: “I woke up about 5.30am and I heard shouting outside. We get stuff like that all the time.

“Outside my window I see a police car and a policeman running towards what seems to be a white van still parked at the end of our road.

“The policeman was shouting 'get out of the car.'"

How the attacks unfolded

4am - Male attacker stabs a young man and a young woman on Ilkeston Road. Police later found two people dead.

5.10am - Man found dead on Magdala road after reports of 'screaming'. A resident believes what he heard was the sound of the body being discovered.

5.30am - Man in a white van hits people at around 5.30am on Milton Street near the Theatre Royal.

5.40am - Witness Kane Brady wakes up to 'gunshots' and sees a person tasered, dragged out of a van and arrested.

Student in Nottingham recounts what he saw amid serious incident

"The girl stumbled towards a house and didn't move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that's where they found her.

"I'd say it all happened within five or six minutes. The attacker then just walked off up Ilkeston Road towards town, as calm as anything."

He called the police who arrived in under five minutes. Paramedics tried to save both victims for 40 minutes.

Read more: Nottingham police incident: Three dead and three injured after linked attacks in city centre - live updates

Others have spoken about the attack, which led police - including armed officers- to shut down parts of the city and cordon off roads in the centre and within about a mile away.

Police were called to Ilkeston Road just after 4am to find the two people dead in the street.

Officers were then called to Milton Street, about a mile east, in the centre of the city, where a van tried to run three people over. They have been taken to hospital.

A man was also found dead in Magdala Road, about a mile north of Milton Street. It is believed all the incidents are linked.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is in custody.

Eyewitness Lynn Haggitt was by the Theatre Royal, in the city's centre, when a white van pulled up to her at 5.30am.

"He looked in his mirror, saw a police car behind him, he then quickened up, there were two people, two in the corner, he went straight into these two people," she told the BBC.

Read more: Three killed and others injured after van tries to run people over in Nottingham as man arrested for murder

"The woman went on the kerb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it, it's really shaken me up.

"I went over, perhaps I shouldn't have gone over but I wanted to see if I could help.

"He (the van driver) backed up after he hit... and drove up Parliament Street.

"The woman was sitting up on the kerb, she looked OK. The man was laying down, but then he got up, sat on the side waiting for an ambulance," Ms Haggitt said, adding "I can't believe he was able to get up after the head wound".

She told Channel 4 News the driver appeared to go "straight into them, he didn't even bother to turn, just went straight back to them".

The area was cordoned off by police.

In Bentinck Road, about a mile north-west of the city centre, a white Vauxhall Vivaro van was stopped away from the pavement with its passenger door open.

Kane Brady, a University of Nottingham student, said he was woken up as police tried to detain a man who was in the van.

"We woke up to shouts of 'armed police' and what... sounded like some very loud noises, what sounded like gunshots - it was that loud," he told GB News.

"I looked out the bedroom window and saw Tasers. I saw a man being dragged out (of the van) and pinned to the floor.

"I saw him getting arrested, him trying to resist. I then later saw when they opened the van, I saw a large knife being pulled out and then straight away that's when police closed off both roads, both Maples Street and Bentinck Road."

The deaths have shocked the city, which woke up to swathes of the centre shut down due to the police cordons.

A resident in Ilkeston Road said he was was asked for CCTV footage by a policewoman "banging on my door" about 5am.

The man, who called himself Wayne, said he had not seen anything.

Nottinghamshire Police's Chief Constable Kate Meynell said it was "an horrific and tragic incident" and the deaths are all thought to be linked.

Rishi Sunak said he was being kept updated and called it a "shocking incident".

The city's three Labour MPs, Nadia Whittome, Lilian Greenwood and Alex Norris, said Nottingham had been "devastated" by the deaths.