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LONDON: British police declared a “serious incident” on Sunday (6 September) after several people were stabbed in the center of the country’s second largest city, Birmingham.
The violence broke out around 12:30 am and around the Arcadian Center, a popular spot full of restaurants, nightclubs and bars.
West Midlands police confirmed “a series” of stabbings, but said they had no information on reports that shots had been fired. No further details on the victims were immediately available.
The incident follows several previous mass stabbings, including one in the Scottish city of Glasgow on June 26, in which six people, including a police officer, were injured.
A man was charged with murder after three people were killed in a park in Reading, west London, the previous week in an attack investigated by counter-terrorism police.
Britain has been on high alert after two massive stabbings in London in the past year, in which both perpetrators, convicted extremists released early from prison, were shot dead by armed officers.
READ: UK to end early release of convicted terrorists following London Bridge attack
READ: Britain labels stabbing ‘atrocity’ in city park as terrorism
Knife crime in England and Wales rose six percent in the year to the end of March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Birmingham, one of Britain’s most ethnically diverse cities with a population of over a million, has had an explosive recent history of gang violence.
In January 2003, a gang opened fire with an illegal semi-automatic machine gun on a rival group. Two teenagers who were passersby died in the hail of bullets.
“GROUPS ON GROUPS”
Cara Curran, a nightclub promoter, was working at the Arcadian Center on Saturday night.
He told AFP that he saw “group after group” of people fighting in and around the place and heard the use of “racial slurs.”
“I had seen a lot of tensions built up overnight, which was not like what I had seen before,” he said.
“I had left with my boyfriend. I heard a commotion and saw several police officers coming our way. I went to where I saw them coming and everything unfolded in front of me.
“It was a great street fight. It really didn’t feel like a fight. It was just several people on top of each other, not one on one.”
Curran said the violence caused people in the area to flee the scene.
Police and other emergency services arrived quickly and cordoned off the area.
The West Midlands mayor-elect for Andy Street said there had been a “series of incidents” in the Hurst Street area, which is in the heart of the city’s Gay Village district.
“They appear to be related, but the motivation for them is not yet understood. The area is quiet and the advice to the public is to go about their business normally,” he told BBC television.
Television footage showed forensic specialists in protective clothing carefully examining the scene, which was recorded and guarded by officers.
“Work is still being done to establish what happened, and it could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything,” West Midlands police said.
“At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
