POLICE have begun a massive man hunt operation to find the lone knifeman who killed a man and injured several others in Birmingham.
The incidents were reported just after midnight yesterday and police have warned residents to remain alert.
West Midlands Police have since declared a major incident to catch a male suspect who managed to evade capture in the early hours of yesterday morning, with “significant
resources” now deployed to aid the manhunt.
Chief superintendent Steve Graham, of West Midlands Police, said the incidents which occurred over a 90-minute period appeared to be “random”, with “no suggestion” the night’s events were linked to terrorism.
He said: “A man has tragically died.
“Another man and a woman have suffered serious injuries and five others have also been injured, although their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.”
The force’s police and crime commissioner David Jamieson labelled the assaults “disturbing”, with the violence enfolding as revellers had been enjoying the night.
Speaking at a press conference at the force’s headquarters, itself only yards from where the initial attacks unfolded, Graham said there was also nothing suggesting it was a hate crime or connected to city gang violence.
He also moved to end speculation the violence was linked to people “squabbling over tables”.
Paramedics said they responded to first reports of a call in Livery Street, in the north of the city centre, at about 12.40am.
The attacker then moved “north to south” through the city centre, said Graham, into the heart of the city’s Gay Village quarter.
However, it was over an hour between the Livery Street violence and the next attack in Irving Street, across the city, at 1.52am which left a man fatally injured.
Shortly afterwards, the emergency services were called to another knife assault in Hurst Street at 2am.
Savvas Sfrantzis, who owns Mykonos bar and grill in Hurst Street, said he witnessed a woman being repeatedly stabbed, just across the street, after he was alerted by her screams.
He said: “I looked at him, facing him, and I can see he had a blade, small, not very big, and he was stabbing her in the neck.”
He described how the attacker was “so cold”, walking calmly away and “smirking”, while other bar staff bravely tried to follow him.
David Nash, a bar manager at The Village Inn, The Nightingale Inn and The Loft Lounge, said he came within 10 metres of a hooded suspect, spotted running from the scene of the stabbings, in Hurst Street.
Nash said that the person was “calm” and walking unhurriedly.
He added: “As soon as somebody shouted ‘stop him’ that’s when he ran off into the area of Sherlock Street.”
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