Anti-terror police keeping an ‘open mind’ on attack motive
THE region’s counter terrorism police chief says officers are keeping an open mind about the motive for the knife attack at Manchester Victoria.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson added that it is not yet believed anyone else was involved in the attack.
Forensics teams and specialist officers were seen trawling the station yesterday and were also looking at ‘very good quality’ CCTV to try and establish the circumstances surrounding the attack.
During a press conference, Mr Jackson, who is head of North West Counter Terrorism, said officers spoke to numerous witnesses.
“I want to be clear, we are treating this as a terrorist investigation,” he said. “The investigation is being led by counter terrorism officers. However it’s really important to stress that we are maintaining an open mind in relation to the motivation for this attack.
“We have nothing at this time to suggest others were involved.”
Senior officers have not been able to confirm whether or not the suspect was known to police before the incident.
ACC Jackson said officers are keeping an open mind about the circumstances of the ‘very violent’ and ‘sustained’ incident.
When asked if the suspect is believed to have mental health problems, he said: “We are obviously considering his mental health given how frenzied the attack was, it’s random nature when all things are considered the fact that it’s at the same location as the [2017] Manchester attack. So we are exploring all avenues.”
It is not yet known how the suspect came to be at Victoria station, his nationality or if he was at the station alone.