One man was killed and seven others got injured – two of them seriously – in a weekend brawl involving knife attacks at the usually buzzing Birmingham city centre early on Sunday. The local police have launched a murder investigation.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab told Sunday television that there was no indication that the incidents were related to terrorism. The incidents between 12.30 am and 2.20 am were linked, the police said, with no apparent motive of hate-crime. One suspect is being hunted.
The police declared it a ‘major incident’, triggering relevant responses from ambulances and other services. A large number of young people were in the city centre area that has several pubs and restaurants.
Witness Cara Curran told the BBC, “I found multiple people having fist fights... people from inside pubs and clubs came out and started to see what was going on. There were females, males, old people, young people, such a mix of people, it didn’t seem real at the time”.
“Working on the club scene for over two years, I’ve always seen quite a lot of fights but it was nothing like tonight. The body language and demeanour was quite different. The number of things that I’ve heard happened tonight in the space of three hours, with the stabbings that have happened, the car crashes and multiple other things, it’s such a huge shock to me”.
{{/usCountry}}“Working on the club scene for over two years, I’ve always seen quite a lot of fights but it was nothing like tonight. The body language and demeanour was quite different. The number of things that I’ve heard happened tonight in the space of three hours, with the stabbings that have happened, the car crashes and multiple other things, it’s such a huge shock to me”.
{{/usCountry}}Chief superintendent Steve Graham of the West Midlands police said, “The events during the early hours of this morning are tragic, shocking and understandably frightening. Please be assured that we are doing absolutely everything we can to find whoever was responsible and trying to understand what exactly happened”.
“We have well-rehearsed plans for dealing with major incidents. Your safety is always our priority and that’s why you’ll see an increase in officers on the streets,” he added.