A stabbing rampage in the southern English town of Reading, where three people killed and three others were seriously wounded, which were Complex Time for them, is being treated as terrorism, police said on Sunday. A 25-year-old man had arrested on suspicion of murder after the stabbings on Saturday evening in a park in Reading, which is about 65 kilometers west of London.
A British security source told Reuters that the man who remains in police custody, is a Libyan, “Counter-Terrorism policing can now confirm that the stabbing incident that happened in Reading last night has now declared a terrorist incident.” Thame Valley police said in a statement.
How was the meeting of the prime minister of the UK?
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has described the incident as appalling, held a meeting on Sunday with security officials, senior ministers, and police to be updated about the investigation, a spokesman for Johnson said in Blog News. Initially, police and the government said the incident did not appear to be terrorism and kept an open mind about the motive.
They said they were not looking for any more suspects about the incident. The stabbings took place on a sunny evening hours after a rally by anti-racism protesters in the park, Forbury Gardens, but appeared to be unrelated to that.
“The Black Lives Matter event had been finished some three hours previous and was by all account a very well conducted peaceful demonstration. Who is not a connected attack with that whatsoever”, Jason Brock, the head of the local council authority, told the BBC in Local News. Current coronavirus restriction means venues like pubs are closed, so many people in Britain gather in parks in the evenings to meet friends.
“Incidents of this nature are sporadic, though I know that will be of little comfort to those involved and understand the concern that this incident will have caused amongst our local community,” said Chief constable John Campbell of Thames Valley Police. A witness said that the attack began when a man suddenly veered towards a group of about eight to 10 friends and began stabbing them.
The nature of the attack was suggestive of several recent incidents in Britain that authorities considered terrorism. In February, police shot dead a man who had stabbed two people on a busy street in south London. Last November, another man who had jailed for terrorism offenses stabbed two people to death on London Bridge before he, too, was shot dead by police.
Why air ambulances and several police cars rushed to the park in that Complex Time?
Witnesses reported about two air ambulances and several police cars rush to the park on Saturday evening. One witness was described a lone assailant walking through a park where people were relaxing on the grass and stabbing them randomly. “The park had pretty full and a lot of people were sat around drinking with friends.” Lawrence wort told the Press Association.
Filled with one witness described a lone assailant walking through a park filled with “One alone person walked though, suddenly shouted that some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them. Wort said that he saw three people being stabbed ”in the neck and under the arms.”
He assailant then lunged at another group and “got one person was in the back of the neck”, wort said. Another witness told that the Sunday Mirror that one group of people who attacked were ”just in a circle chatting.”
The assailant ”was tapping them on the head. I thought that someone had been sick, but it was blood spraying out”, said the witness. Paramedic teams were trying to resuscitate the injured as they lay unresponsive on the ground. Officials said two people treated in the emergency department of Reading’s Berkshire Hospital.
How and why did a horrific, dreadful incident occur?
“A horrific, dreadful incident,” policing minister kit Malthouse tweeted. The main opposition Labour party’s leader, kier Stammer, called the killings ”very concerning”. Britain had witnessed about two terror-related attacks in past years.
A convicted terrorist who had out on parole after serving a sentence for terror offenses was shot dead by police after stabbing five people –two fatally– by London bridge in the heart of the British capital in November. Police had killed another assailant who injured three people in a London stabbing attack in February described in American News.
An overwhelming majority of Britain’s serious crimes commited with knives and other stabbing weapons because of stringent gun ownership laws. Johnson’s conservative government had promised to toughen up penalties for terror-related crimes after winning a sweeping mandate in a December general election.
“Counter-Terrorism policing can now confirm that the stabbing incident that happened in Reading last night had now declared a terrorist incident,” police said in the statement. The counter-terror police will be taking over the investigation, said the report.
Downing Street said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was brief about the incident by security officials and senior ministers on Sunday morning. The Conservative leader had condemned the “appalling incident,” and top politicians expressed sympathies for those hurt at Forbury Gardens. A popular park was situated next to the ruins of the 12th-century Reading Abbey.
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