U.K. man arrested after apparent killing spree
LONDON — A knife-wielding assailant stabbed two college students to death in the streets of the English city of Nottingham and then fatally stabbed a middle-aged man, stole his van and ran down three pedestrians in a shocking rampage early Tuesday morning, police said.
Police arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murder. The Nottinghamshire Police force said investigators believe the perpetrator acted alone and detectives were working with counterterrorism officers to try to establish a motive.
“This is a horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people,” Chief Constable Kate Meynell said.
A man who was among the people struck in the hit-andrun was hospitalized in critical condition. The dead included two 19-year-old students from the University of Nottingham.
The knife attack on the students occurred around dawn in an area near student housing. A caller reported that two stabbing victims were lying in the street.
Police think the attacker then killed a man in his 50s and took his van, Meynell said. His body was found more than a mile from the first crime scene. About 90 minutes after the initial attack, witnesses were horrified as they watched the van plow into pedestrians and flee.
Lynn Haggitt was on her way to work when a white van pulled up beside her at 5:30 a.m. She saw the driver look in his mirror and spot a police car approaching slowly from behind without its emergency lights on. The driver then accelerated and struck a man and woman at a street corner, she said.
“He went straight into them. He didn’t even bother to turn,” Haggitt told reporters. “The woman went on the curb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it.”
Two of the hit-and-run victims had minor injuries, Meynell said.
“We believe these three incidents are all linked, and we have a man in custody,” the police chief said
After stopping the van, officers subdued the suspect with a Taser before detaining him.