'BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAMS'
Nottingham: Young woman screamed ‘help’ as knifeman in black stabbed her and man to death ‘randomly’ in street
A YOUNG woman screamed for help as she and a fellow student were stabbed "randomly" to death in a street, a witness has claimed.
Two 19-year-old students, including cricket ace Barnaby Webber, were found dead on Ilkeston Road in Nottingham just after 4am - as police declared a major incident.
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And another body was found just miles away - with cops today revealing they believe the man in his 50s had been stabbed to death before his van was stolen.
The van was used to run over three people on Milton Street - with one in a critical condition.
A man, 31, has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the van was ultimately stopped on Maple Street about 5.30am.
And one witness claimed he watched a man dressed all in black knife the two University of Nottingham students on the street around 4am, before walking off "calm as anything".
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The man, who wished to remain anonymous, told the : “Being a hot night, I had the window open and I just heard some awful, blood-curdling screams.
"It’s often quite busy with people coming back from town and you get the usual boyfriend-girlfriend arguments, so I thought it was something like that."
What we know:
- "Major incident" declared in Nottingham and six roads closed
- Police confirm two people found dead on Ilkeston Road just after 4am
- Another man also found dead on nearby Magdala Road in city centre
- Three others injured - one critically - after van tried to mow them down on Milton Street
- Witness tells of hearing gunshots before cops swarmed van on Maple Street, seeing a man arrested on suspicion of murder
- A second witness recalled the horrific moment she discovered the first victim of the attack
- Terror cops with assault rifles raid home on Ilkeston Road
- Cops reveal they're not looking for anyone else in connection to tragedy
- It was revealed the Nottingham suspect is a foreign national with "mental health issues"
- Police say they believe the suspect stole the van before mowing people down
- Grace Kumar and Barnaby Webster were named as victims of the attack
- Timeline reveals how horror unfolded
- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pays tribute to victims
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The witness said he saw a man dressed in all black, with a hood and rucksack, grappling two people.
He continued: "It was a girl, and a man or boy she was with – they looked quite young.
“She was screaming: ‘Help!’ I just wish I’d shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant.
“I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing – four or five times. The lad collapsed in the middle of the road.
“The girl stumbled towards a house and didn’t move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that’s where they found her."
The man claimed the horror lasted about five minutes, adding: "The attacker then just walked off up Ilkeston Road towards town, as calm as anything.”
He scrambled to phone police, saying he was too frightened to intervene or leave his home.
The man added: “It was a horrific thing to witness. I’m in bits here."
And student told The : “They just got unlucky. They were five minutes from home and got stabbed by a random guy.”
POLICE SWOOP
Another body - believed to be that of a man in his 50s - was then found on Magdala Street with detectives believing he had been killed when his van was stolen.
And police finally put an end to the horror, swooping to arrest the suspect barely a mile away on Maple Street.
Witness, uni student Kane Brady, told of how he heard gunshots around 5.30am before seeing a man arrested nearby on Maple Street.
Kane told GB News: "We woke up to shouts of armed police and what sounded like some very loud, large commotion and heard loads of bangs. It was so loud it sounded like gunshots.
"We saw a man being dragged out of a van. We saw him being tasered. We saw the police pinning him down as well. It was quite a scary thing to wake up to so early on in the morning.
"I didn't really know where it was going to go because there were only a few policemen at the scene. I know they called for back up straight away.
"The man was resisting arrest so I didn't know what was going to happen or whether that was the end of it."
Photos of the scene show what appeared to be bullet holes in a van's windscreen, with cops swarming a person nearby.
Kane claimed cops seized a knife which was the size of A4 paper from the van, adding: "It was even bigger than that. It was a massive knife.
"The blade was huge. Me and someone else looked at each other straight away when we saw the knife and were like 'oh my god, what the hell'. It was absolute shock."
Kane said of the van: "The whole front of the van is in absolute bits. There's quite a lot of dents and the glass is all shattered and smashed."
Another local, Lynn Haggitt, claimed she saw the white Vauxhall Vivaro pull up beside her around the same time.
Lynn told Channel 4 News: “The man in the driver’s seat looked in his mirror and saw the police car behind him.
“The white van then quickened up to the corner of the street and went into two people. He went straight into them and didn’t even bother to turn.
“A lady ended up on the kerb and then he backed up and sped up Parliament Street with the police cars following him.
“A man was hurt badly. They did get him to his feet with a whopping great head wound but amazingly enough he got up. The woman was sitting up on the kerb. To me she looked okay.”
'HORRIFIC AND TRAGIC'
Police initially said they were attending a major incident, with specialist officers at the scene and a cordon thrown up in the city centre with the public told to stay away.
Six roads were shut and tram services cancelled as police dealt with the incident.
Chief Constable Kate Meynell said described the attack as a "shocking and tragic series of event".
She said: "My thoughts are with all the families affected by this horrific incident, and we are working extremely hard to understand exactly what has happened."
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She confirmed the suspect remained in police custody, with officers not looking for anyone else in connection with the tragedy.
Cops have searched a number of addresses across the city.
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