Hotel knifeman threatened to stab noisy neighbours

RESIDENTS at the Glasgow hotel where an asylum seeker was shot dead after he stabbed other guests and staff say they had concerns about the his welfare in the days before the attacks.

The knifeman, named by a friend as a Sudanese asylum seeker called Badradeen, was shot dead by police after the rampage on Friday lunchtime.

Fellow asylum seekers at the 91-bedroom hotel on West George Street in the heart of the city said the man, who had been in the UK for about six month,s had threatened to stab people in nearby rooms who he said were being noisy.

The guests said they alerted hotel staff about the threats.

One man, who gave his name as Siraj, recalled: “He told me he was fed up. He had been at the hotel for three months. There was no daylight in his room and he was very, very angry.

“He said that he was going to attack the two guys in the room next to his because they were making noise to deliberately annoy him.

“He said ‘I will attack’ so everyone should take it seriously.

“I told him ‘no, there’s no need to attack’ and he said ‘they hate me, I hate them, they are against me’.

“He started to say a lot of stuff like that but I said nobody hates you, nobody knows you, nobody knows each other.

“I didn’t think he would actually do anything but I reported him to the hotel reception and then the next day, yesterday (Friday) morning, the housing manager talked to me and I said to him everything he (the attacker) said to me. And in the afternoon, it happened.”

Siraj, from Yemen, said he had gone to sleep after speaking to the receptionist and he was only woken by the fire alarm.

“I came down and just saw the blood everywhere. I couldn’t believe he had done it.

“I think he was getting more mentally ill over the three months.”

Abdal Nasser, 22, said he was friends with the man he called Badradeen.

He said: “I was there in the hotel but I did not see the attack. I did see Badradeen, who was my friend, with a knife in his hand.

“It is a shock for me. I am so sorry for all the people he hurt. I did not know Badradeen well but we became friends in recent weeks because we are both from Sudan.”

Another resident, Beatrice Onwuka, 37, from Nigeria, added: “He was fed up. He didn’t speak much English and had few friends. He was nearly always on his own.

“He told me he wanted to go home, he didn’t want to stay here anymore. He had had enough.”

It was also claimed that an immigration liaison worker spoke with Badradeen and a lawyer on Thursday at about 11pm.

Following that conversation the worker had concerns about Badradeen’s mental health and spoke to hotel staff.

Also, the lawyer spoke to Badradeen shortly before the attack on Friday lunchtime. After that call the lawyer said he would raise certain issues and concerns with a safeguarding team at the Home Office which is designed to protect people in vulnerable circumstances.