Was this attack in Nottingham terrorism?

Nottingham is a city of 300,000 about two hours north of London. Early this morning someone went on a killing spree that left three people dead and three more injured. So far police are only saying they are keeping an open mind about what happened. Here’s what we know. It started sometime around 4 am when a man stabbed two people to death in the street.

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Residents had been struggling to sleep anyway because of the heat. With their windows open, they couldn’t help but hear the blood-curdling screams.

A young woman repeatedly shouted for help as she watched a male friend being stabbed and slashed by a knifeman dressed all in black. The attacker then turned his focus to the woman, killing her as well.

At 4am on Tuesday, as partygoers headed for their beds, two people lay dead in the middle of one of the main roads out of Nottingham, in an area that is home to much of the city’s sizeable student population.

Those two victims were university students, both aged nineteen.

The attacker then got into a van and attempted to run down people on the sidewalk. An eyewitness described what she saw:

Lynne Haggitt, another witness, told the BBC that she saw a van hit two people in the city centre.

She said she saw the driver “look in his mirror” to see the police car behind him and claims he then sped up, going “straight into” two people.

“The woman went on the kerb and the man went up in the air,” she said.

“It was such a bang – I wish I never saw it – it’s really shaken me up. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

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All three of those people were sent to the hospital with injuries, one of them was in critical condition. Police also discovered a third body and have said that man was a victim in the same spree. It’s believed he may have been the driver of the van which the attacker stole from him and then used to attack the other victims on the sidewalk.

Around 5:30 am police arrested a suspect.

A 31-year-old man was arrested in Bentinck Road on suspicion of murder, and he remains in police custody.

There is no information at the moment about whether or not the incident was terror-related.

There’s video of him being pulled out of the white van he used to run people down.

You can’t really see the suspect in that clip but it has since been confirmed that he’s a West African migrant.

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Police are saying they are confident the suspect acted alone but still aren’t given any more information about his motive.

There will be more updates on this story. I’ll add them below as we learn more.

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