forensics tent is seen at the junction of Church Street and Barwick
Street, following a major stabbing incident in the centre of
Birmingham, central England, on September 6, 2020. Oli SCARFF
/ AFP
Police on Monday arrested a man on suspicion of murder
following a series of stabbings in Birmingham, Britain’s second
city, that left one person dead and three critically
injured.
The 27-year-old suspect was held in a pre-dawn raid in the Selly
Oak area following the apparently random attacks around the city
centre in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The man killed was named as Jacob Billington, 23, who had been
on a night out with friends when he was stabbed.
In a statement, his family said they were devastated that “the
light of our life” had gone, adding: “He was a funny, caring and w
onderful person who was loved by every single person he met.”
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Seven people were injured, including one of Billington’s
friends, also 23, who is in a critical condition in hospital.
Another man, aged 30 and a 22-year-old woman, attacked in
different parts of the city centre, are also critically ill in
hospital, police said.
The murder suspect “remains in custody on suspicion of murder
and seven counts of attempted murder,” they said, adding that three
other people were arrested at the same address on suspicion of
assisting him.
The attack occurred at four separate locations in the busy city
centre between 12:30 and 2:30 am on Sunday.
One of the areas was in the heart of Birmingham’s Gay Village
but officers ruled out a hate crime. They also rejected any links
to gang violence or terrorism.
“We are working hard to discover what led to the apparently
random attacks,” said police chief Steve Graham.
“We have no suggestion that the motive was either racial,
homophobic or gang-related.”
Britain has been on high alert after two mass stabbings in
London in the last year that saw armed officers shoot dead both
perpetrators — convicted Islamic extremists who had been released
early from prison.
In June, a man was charged with murder after three people were
stabbed to death in a park in Reading, west of London, in an attack
under investigation by counter-terrorism police.
Six people, including a police officer, were then injured at a
hotel housing asylum seekers in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Armed
police shot dead the suspected attacker.
Stabbings in England and Wales increased six per cent in the
year to the end of March, according to the Office for National
Statistics.
Birmingham is one of Britain’s most ethnically diverse cities
with a population of more than one million and has had an explosive
recent history of gang violence.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel both
sent condolences to the victims and thanked the emergency services,
who declared a “major incident” in response to the attacks.
AFP
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