UK Cops Say Mass Stabbing Being Treated as Terror Attack

3 killed, 3 seriously hurt in park attack
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 21, 2020 7:59 AM CDT
3 Killed, 3 Seriously Hurt in Stabbings at UK Park
Armed police officers stand by a door at a block of flats off the Basingstoke Road in Reading after an incident at Forbury Gardens park in the town centre of Reading, England, Saturday, June 20, 2020.   (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

British police said Sunday they are treating a stabbing rampage in a park that killed three people as a terrorist attack. Dean Haydon, the UK’s coordinator of counterterrorism policing, said counterterror detectives were taking over the investigation into the attack in the town of Reading, west of London. Police had earlier said they were keeping an open mind about the motive. Three people were killed and three others seriously wounded in the stabbing attack in Reading’s Forbury Gardens Park on Saturday evening, reports the AP. The Thames Valley Police force said officers arrested a 25-year-old local man at the scene and they were not looking for anyone else. The suspect is a Libyan citizen, according to the Guardian.

The violence erupted around 7pm as families and friends were enjoying a warm, sunny evening in the Forbury Gardens park in Reading, a town of about 200,000 residents 40 miles west of London. Personal trainer Lawrence Wort said the park was full of groups socializing on the grass when “one lone person walked through, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them." "He stabbed three of them, severely in the neck, and under the arms, and then turned and started running towards me, and we turned and started running,” Wort says. The incident came hours after a Black Lives Matter demonstration at Forbury Gardens, but police said there was no connection between the attack and the protest.

(More United Kingdom stories.)

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