London | A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of multiple knife attacks that left one dead and two seriously injured overnight in Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, the UK said police Monday.
“We have arrested a man on suspicion of murder and seven attempted murders for a series of knife attacks in Birmingham,” West Midlands County Police said.
The victims appear to have been targeted “at random”, police said.
A 23-year-old man has died after being stabbed, while another man and woman, aged 19 and 32, suffered serious stab wounds and remain in hospital in critical condition. Five other people, aged 23 to 33, were less seriously injured.
The attacks took place between 12:30 a.m. and 2:20 a.m. local time (11:30 p.m. and 1:20 a.m. GMT) at several locations in the city.
Police had broadcast CCTV footage of the suspect on Sunday evening and received “many responses”.
“One of those leads took us to the Selly Oak neighborhood this morning where a man was arrested,” police said.
The investigation is continuing. According to the first elements of the investigation, nothing allows to retain at this stage a hypothesis “terrorist” or that of a hate crime, nor that of a conflict between gangs, explained Sunday one of the persons in charge of Police Steve Graham at a press conference.