It was the perfect place to hang out in the sun. Then hell was let loose

Picnickers and sunworshippers enjoying a warm Saturday evening were plunged into a scene of carnage

‘He darted round the circle anticlockwise, got one, went to another, stabbed the next one. I still thought it was a scuffle’

‘We ran over and without seeing an attacker we found three men lying on the floor bleeding profusely’

FORBURY GARDENS was packed. With the pubs shut and the sun shining, the park in the centre of Reading was the perfect place to hang out for anybody wanting a drink and a picnic during the pandemic.

Then, at just after 7pm all hell broke loose. According to witnesses, a man in his mid-20s and dressed in a black Tshirt, screamed something “unintelligible”, possibly in a foreign language, then pulled out a knife and began running anti-clockwise around a circle of 10 people sitting on the grass, stabbing them in the back or neck.

Terror had returned to Britain. The attack would leave three dead and at least three more seriously injured.

“Everyone was just having fun,” said Lawrence Wort, 20, a personal trainer from Chippenham, who was sitting in the park with his friends, near a statue of the Forbury Lion. They were about 30 ft away. “Suddenly the man shouted… I don’t know if it was just unintelligible screams or a foreign language. But he darted and I thought it was just a scuffle at first.

“They were sat in a circle drinking in a big group, about eight to 10 people. He darted round the circle anticlockwise, got one, went to another, stabbed the next one. I still thought it was a scuffle. I was watching because I didn’t want to get involved in anything.

“But then he stood up and I saw a massive knife in his hand, probably at least five inches, minimum.”

The attacker turned to Mr Wort and his party of friends and stared at them. Mr Wort shouted “run”.

“I heard a lot of screams in the park, a lot of people realised and started running,” he said. The knifeman gave up the chase and turned back, pouncing on another party that had their back to him, unaware of what was going on.

“I saw he stabbed at least one of them in the back of the neck. I think he got another one as well. And when everyone started running he turned and ran out of the park,” said Mr Wort.

The suspect fled, leaving behind a scene of carnage behind.

Video footage, later circulated on social media despite objections from many that it was too gruesome and should not be shared, showed four people lying on the ground in the aftermath of the attack, blood pouring from wounds. Police and medics already in attendance tried frantically to save the victims. Greg Wilton, who was with his wife Amy and friends for a picnic, noticed the commotion from the other side of the Forbury Gardens.

“We ran over and without seeing an attacker we found three men lying on the floor bleeding profusely,” said Mr Wilton. “A member of the public took off his T-shirt and tried to stop the bleeding alongside someone we assume to be his girlfriend. Me and my friend Tom put a second victim in the recovery position and tried to stem the bleeding from his ear with my canvas shopping bag. His breathing became increasingly irregular, and shallower until the police and paramedic arrived.”

A friend of Mr Wilton’s helped another victim, who had been stabbed in the face.

Witness accounts suggested the sus

‘There was a guy on the ground and then the officers slide-tackled him”

‘There was a loud bang at about 1am. I think that was the police blowing the door off his flat’

pect, named yesterday as Khairi Saadallah, 25, a Libyan national who lived a little over a mile from the park in a block of flats, had fled, running past St Laurence’s Church, and down Friar Street. Police gave chase.

The suspect was finally captured in the middle of the road near Greyfriars Church, 10 minutes from the park, tackled by as many as five police officers. Other reports suggested bystanders had also given chase and helped to catch the assailant, with one officer placing cuffs on his bloodied hands.

Witness Amir Haydoon, 31, a Deliveroo driver, said: “There was a guy on the ground and then the officers slide-tackled him. They rugby-tackled him but he wasn’t blinking at all. He was just looking and I was like, ‘why is he not caring?’ He wasn’t resisting or anything and it looked a bit weird. His hand was covered in blood.”

Two hours earlier, Forbury Gardens had been the scene of a Black Lives Matter protest, organisers stressing the event had ended peacefully and was unconnected to the incident.

Nieema Hassan, an organiser, said: “In terms of the protest and the people who attended from Black Lives Matter, we’re all safe. I am praying for the people who have been affected.”

In the aftermath, Reading went into a lockdown prompted by a terrorist attack rather than by the pandemic. Roads were shut, a cordon put around the scene and armed police deployed as helicopters buzzed overhead.

Claire Gould, 33, a freelance journalist who lives near the scene, said she saw air ambulances land at nearby Kings Meadow. She described hearing sirens and said surrounding roads and a retail park had been cordoned off. Thames Valley Police posted on social media: “Police attended at around 7pm along with other emergency services. Officers arrested a man at the scene who is now in police custody.”

Two victims were taken to Royal Berkshire Hospital. Alistair Smith, a patient already in the hospital, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The nurse was chatting to one of her colleagues and then she turned round to me and said three people are dead. She said there were multiple stab victims.”

Six hours after the attack, police raided Saadallah’s flat on the top floor of the block on the Basingstoke Road. Sophie Parker, 25, who lives in the block, said she heard a “massive bang” at 1.30am, hours after a number of police cars and a helicopter had circled the building. Another neighbour said his daughter told him there were officers outside and they had guns.

He said: “There was a loud bang at about 1am. I think that was the police blowing the door off his flat. I took the children away because they were petrified by all that was going on. I came back at about 2am and the police had virtually all gone.”

Cordons remained in Reading yesterday as forensics officers combed the streets. The suspect is in custody, but the devastating toll of the attack will not go away.