A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a series of stabbings which took place in and around Birmingham’s Gay Village in the early hours of Sunday morning.
West Midlands Police declared the situation which took place around Hurst Street as a major incident. One 23 year-old man was killed, while two other people – a 19 year-old man and a 32 year-old woman – are described as being in critical condition. Five other people were also stabbed but did not suffer extreme injury.
A police spokesperson said, “We can confirm that at approximately 12:30am today (Sunday 6 September) we were called to reports of a stabbing in Birmingham city centre. We immediately attended, along with colleagues from the ambulance service. A number of other stabbings were reported in the area shortly after.”
The statement continued, “This has been declared a major incident. Work is still going on to establish what has happened, and could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything.”
While the attacks took place in and around the Gay Village, it is not yet been announced if they were a hate crime or whether the victims were LGBT+. Police have said the attacks were apparently at random and did not appear to be terrorism- or gang-related.
In an interview with the BBC, Nikita Denton described how she and her friend tried to assist one of the victims. “My best friend Jay held her head and talked her through everything the whole time and wouldn’t leave her side. She looked very dazed and confused, she couldn’t talk. But she was talking to my friend with blinks.” She continued, “I’d hate to think if we weren’t there that night as she would have been alone.”
Another eye witness, Savvas Sfrantzis, described how he saw the attacked stab a woman multiple times – “He was like, very cold and he wasn’t panicking and he wasn’t reacting or anything. After he stabbed her between five and seven times he walked off as if nothing has happened.”
As well as suspicion of murder, the suspect has been charged with seven counts of attempted murder.
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