New Year’s Eve: Manchester Knifeman Shouted ‘Allah!’ Before Stabbing Three

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester on Janua
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Three people were stabbed by a knifeman in Manchester, England, as the United Kingdom prepared to welcome in the New Year on Monday evening.

The alleged knifeman shouted “Allah”, according to eyewitnesses, before stabbing a man and woman at Manchester Victoria railway station. A police officer was also subsequently stabbed before the man was overpowered around 2100.

The Manchester Evening News reports the remarks of eyewitness Sam Clack, a BBC producer who was at the station while travelling home, who said: “I just heard this most blood-curdling scream and looked down the platform.

“What it looked like was a guy in his 60s with a woman of similar age and another guy all dressed in black… It looked like they were having a fight but she was screaming in this blood-curdling way.

“I saw police in high-viz come towards him. He came towards me. I looked down and saw he had a kitchen knife with a black handle with a good, 12 inch blade.”

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester on January 1, 2019, following a stabbing on December 31, 2018. – A man, a woman and a police officer were being treated for knife injuries, police said Monday, after a stabbing at a railway station in the British city of Manchester. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

Clack said the suspect shouted as he was pinned down and arrested by police officers: “As long as you keep bombing other countries this sort of shit is going to keep happening.”

An unconfirmed video purporting to be of the arrest shared to social media showed a man in Manchester Victoria station shouting “Allahu Akhbar”. Greater Manchester Police sad there was “no wider threat at this time.”

The British Transport Police said in a statement that a man had been detained while two members of the public had been hospitalised with knife injuries, and an officer had been stabbed in the shoulder. Greater Manchester Police confirmed the injuries were serious, but not life-threatening.

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester on January 1, 2019, following a stabbing on December 31, 2018. – A man, a woman and a police officer were being treated for knife injuries, police said Monday, after a stabbing at a railway station in the British city of Manchester. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

Although the motivation of this knife attack has not been confirmed, the stabbing has drawn inevitable comparisons on social media to the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, which took place just yards away from Manchester Victoria station. The Islamist suicide bombing killed 23 and injured hundreds at an Ariana Grande concert as parents picked up their children after the event.

The youngest victim of Islamist killer Salman Abedi was just eight years old.

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