HUNT FOR ‘ RELAXED’ KILLER WHO STABBED 8
DETECTIVES were hunting a knife maniac yesterday after a man was stabbed to death and seven others wounded in nearly two hours of mayhem.
The “calm” killer attacked victims at random in Birmingham city centre causing terror among crowds enjoying a night out.
In a horrifying rampage early yesterday, he hacked one man to death and left another man and a woman fighting for their lives.
The killer lashed out at five other victims leaving them with non- life threatening injuries.
Shouting
Last night after trawling through CCTV footage police issued pictures of a suspect. They warned people not to approach him.
As a major police manhunt was under way one onlooker told how the maniac casually plunged a knife into a young woman’s neck.
Bar owner Savvas Sfrantzis, 64, said: “He put the knife in her neck and walked off as if nothing had happened. She was only young, maybe in her 20s.
“He didn’t panic, he didn’t look like he was worried. He looked relaxed about what he had done. You could see the blade in his hands. Everyone was shouting, ‘ He’s got a knife’. Everyone was panicking.”
Mr Sfrantzis said: “I was about 20 yards away. She started sceaming, ‘ He’s stabbing me’ but everyone thought he was robbing her because she had a necklace. I saw the knife.” He said the knifeman smirked at bar staff who tried to follow him. One told the killer, “I recognise your face, but the man told him “Whatever.”
Others reported seeing a woman with serious wounds and two people who had been “stabbed in the neck”. Many victims are believed to be in their 20s. Witnesses said the suspect is between 20 and 25, wearing dark trousers, a hoodie with white stripes and a black cap.
The carnage at four locations was at first feared to be a terror attack but that has been ruled out.
Some victims were attacked in the city’s gay quarter but police stressed there was no evidence to suggest a “hate crime”. Victims were chosen at random and any link to gangs was ruled out.
A black- handled knife was recovered near the scene of one of the attacks but police said it was too early to say if it was used by the killer. Chief Superintendent
Steve Graham, of West Midlands Police, the incident was “tragic, shocking and understandably frightening”.
Armed officers patrolled as police appealed for anyone who has mobile phone or dash- cam footage to contact them.
Large areas of the city centre were cordoned off and officers erected two blue forensic tents at the scene of the murder. Blood spots could be seen behind the police tapes at some locations.
The bloodbath began in Constitution Hill to the north of the city centre around 30 minutes after midnight before moving south.
Locked
The maniac then struck at Livery Street at 12.40am before stabbing a man to death in Irving Street around 1.50am.
The final stabbing took place at Hurst Street near the Arcadian Centre – a venue of shops, bars and restaurants – around 2am.
In a move reminiscent of the terrorist attack in London’s Borough Market in 2017, some bars locked customers inside.
Eden Bar co- owner Gary Prentis said the suspect tried to get into a taxi but failed.
David Nash, of the Village Inn in Hurst Street, said: “He was calm, I wouldn’t say he was hurried. He wasn’t looking back. He just walked straight past.”