Nottingham major incident latest news: ‘Blood-curdling screams as man and woman stabbed’

A map shows the police cordon in Nottingham city centre following the major incident.

Road closures in place on Tuesday morning included Ilkeston Road, Milton Street, Maples Street and Woodborough Road, from the junction with Magdala Road into the city.

The tram network was also disrupted with all services suspended on the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) as the police investigation continued.

Three people have been found dead in Nottingham in what police described as a “horrific and tragic incident”.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after two bodies were discovered in a city centre street in the early hours of Tuesday. A third man was found dead in another location, Nottinghamshire Police said.

A further three people are in hospital after someone tried to run them over in a van, in what police believe was a connected incident.

Sam Rkaina reports on everything we know about the tragic incident so far:

The Leader of Nottingham City Council has condemned the “dreadful violence”.

Labour’s Councillor David Mellen said: “I am shocked and saddened by these horrific deaths. My thoughts and prayers are with those who knew and loved the three people who have died and those who have been injured, and to the communities where they lived.

“Ours is an overwhelmingly peaceful and tolerant city where people get along with one another and it’s incomprehensible that such dreadful violence has happened here. I’m grateful to the police for swiftly making an arrest and for all the emergency services responding to this tragic situation and keeping us safe.”

Lynn Haggitt told BBC News she was feeling “shaky” after describing what she saw near the Theatre Royal in Nottingham this morning.

She described how a white van pulled up beside her at 5.30am on her way to work: “He looked in his mirror, saw a police car behind him, he then quickened up, there were two people, two in the corner, he went straight into these two people.”

“The woman went on the kerb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it, it’s really shaken me up.

“I went over, perhaps I shouldn’t have gone over but I wanted to see if I could help.

“He (the van driver) backed up after he hit… and drove up Parliament Street.

“The woman was sitting up on the kerb, she looked OK. The man was laying down, but then he got up, sat on the side waiting for an ambulance,” Ms Haggitt said, adding “I can’t believe he was able to get up after the head wound”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are closely monitoring developments to events in Nottingham, Downing Street said.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Sunak was informed about the incidents “early this morning”.

“He is being kept up to date on the latest developments here,” the spokesman said.

“This is a live police investigation.

“A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder so I’m limited in what I can say, but both he and the Home Secretary are closely monitoring the latest developments.”

Viewed from the other side of the cordon, the van in Bentinck Road has clear damage to its bonnet and windscreen.

There are two dents on the bonnet, just above the radiator grille, and two sets of corresponding cracks radiating out from two points on the windscreen.

Residents gathered at the cordon said they were disturbed by shouting just before 5.30am but said this was not unusual as the street is home to a number of drug rehabilitation establishments.

Kane Brady, a student at the University of Nottingham, told GB News he saw a knife being taken from a white van after a man was arrested outside his house on Maples Street.

Mr Brady said: “We woke up to shouts of ‘armed police’ and what… sounded like some very loud noises, what sounded like gunshots – it was that loud.

“I looked out the bedroom window and saw Tasers. I saw a man being dragged out (of the van) and pinned to the floor.

“I saw him getting arrested, him trying to resist.

“I then later saw when they opened the van, I saw a large knife being pulled out and then straight away that’s when police closed off both roads, both Maples Street and Bentinck Road.”

A witness told the BBC he saw a young man and young woman being stabbed on Ilkeston Road, close to the junction with Bright Street in Nottingham, at around 4am.

The man, who did not give his name, said he heard “awful, blood-curdling screams” and looked out his window to see a “black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people”.

He told the broadcaster: “She was screaming ‘Help!’ I just wish I’d shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant.

“I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing – four or five times. The lad collapsed in the middle of the road.

“The girl stumbled towards a house and didn’t move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that’s where they found her.

“I’d say it all happened within five or six minutes. The attacker then just walked off up Ilkeston Road towards town, as calm as anything.”

The man said he called the police who arrived within five minutes, before paramedics tried to revive the pair for 40 minutes.