UK stabbings: Suspect held under Mental Health Act
London: A 25-year-old man suspected of stabbing three people at a Manchester railway station on New Year eve has been detained under mental health laws, police said.
The suspect, identified only as a 25-year-old man, had “been assessed by specialist staff and detained under the Mental Health Act,” Greater Manchester Police said, while informing that a terror-related investigation is ongoing, EFE news reported on Wednesday.
Authorities said the focus of the investigation remained on terrorism, though noting that they had found “nothing to suggest the involvement of other people in this attack.”
The suspect is facing charges of attempted murder.
The two civilian victims, a man and a woman, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, while a police officer stabbed in the attack was treated and released.
British Transport Police were called to Manchester’s Victoria Station at 8.50 pm Monday after reports of “a man with a knife,” authorities said.
Witnesses said they heard the attacker shout “Allah” and “Long live the caliphate.”
Police carried out a search Tuesday at a home in Manchester’s Cheetham Hill area where the suspect resided.
“I know that the events of last night will have affected many people and caused concern,” Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said Tuesday. “That the incident happened so close to the scene of the terrorist attack on 22 May 2017 makes it even more dreadful.”
Victoria Station is near Manchester Arena, where 22 people died 19 months ago in a bombing after an Ariana Grande concert.
“There is wide reporting in the press about what the attacker allegedly said during the incident and because of this we want to be clear, we are treating this as a terrorism investigation,” Hopkins said, while adding that police were “retaining an open mind in relation to the motivation for this attack.”
