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The hypothesis takes shape that it was a single person – identified as a young fugitive, still wanted – who stabbed several people during the night in four or five places in the center of Birmingham, with a death toll, two seriously injured and others 5 less serious. This was suggested by a local police officer when answering journalists’ questions, although without excluding that other suspects could be identified. According to an initial reconstruction, they would have been “random” attacks. The fights reported by some witnesses would instead have been collateral tensions, triggered by the unrest in an area where many young people gathered, in a climate of alcoholic overexcitement, on the busiest night since the end of the closure imposed by the coronavirus in the neighborhood nightlife scene in the British city. . Police also reiterated that they have “absolutely no indication” of any terrorist motive or an ethno-sectarian hate crime. Not even the wake of revenge among the youth gangs is confirmed, while that of a raptus remains standing.
The night of violence
The night of violence was divided into at least four different moments: a first stabbing – said the detective superintendent – was reported shortly after midnight in the Snow Hill area, followed by a confrontation between two groups of young men at the Arcadian. Center (an area that includes nightclubs, restaurants and pubs that has again become overcrowded after the coronavirus lockdown) and other attacks between Livery Street, Irving Street and Hurst Street in the city center. The nearby Gay Village does not appear to have been involved, nor are there currently hypotheses of ethnic or sectarian motives in a city – second by population in the United Kingdom – considered among the most multicultural and with the highest rate of Muslim communities in the country. The Police have specified that they do not want to disseminate data on the people involved, or images from closed-circuit television cameras for the time being due to the necessary confidentiality “in the initial stages of the investigation.” Instead, an appeal was made to all witnesses and those who have filmed scenes of violence “not to be afraid” to come forward with investigators.
Raab: no terrorism hypothesis, but people are on the alert
Boris Johnson’s Chancellor and No. 2 of the British government, Dominic Raab, said this morning that he had “no information” on any terrorist hypotheses behind the nightly stabbings in the center of Birmingham, in central England. However, Raab defined the incident – described by some witnesses as the result of a violent fight between two groups of young people in an area crowded with pubs, restaurants and discos – a “very serious” episode and invited citizens to “monitor” and Avoid the area The epicenter of the attack was isolated and closed to traffic to facilitate investigations and “distancing” linked to the coronavirus emergency, West Midlands Police said.
Witness talks about a big fight
An eyewitness to the overnight stabbings in Birmingham reports a major fight that took place in the local area. Cara, this is the name of the woman who works at the Arcadian Center club, she told the BBC that she had seen “more people fight.” She had finished her shift and was drinking with her colleagues when she heard a “loud roar and a lot of commotion.” I saw more people arguing. People from pubs and clubs came out and began to see what was going on. There were women, men, old people, young people, such a mix of people, it didn’t feel real at the time. Working in clubs, I’ve always seen a lot of discussions but never like tonight. “The amount of things that I heard that happened tonight in the space of three hours – concludes -, with stabbings, crashes from behind and many other things is a great shock for me”.
The Arcadian Center is an area of restaurants, bars, cafes, clubs and hotels. With a central open-air plaza, it is close to the Chinatown and Gay Quarter areas of the city. The witness, a promoter of several clubs, said the bars were full and it appeared to be the busiest night since the coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted. When many were already drunk “tensions began to rise.”
