Three killed, three injured in UK park stabbing

Three people have been killed and three others seriously injured after a man went on a stabbing rampage in a park in the southern English city of Reading.

Thames Valley Police said they had launched a murder investigation and were not treating Saturday’s incident as terror-related after making one arrest at the scene.

“This is not currently being treated as a terrorism incident, however officers are keeping an open mind as to the motivation for the incident and are being supported by colleagues from Counter Terrorism Policing South East,” the police said in a statement.

They confirmed arresting a 25-year-old man.

A Black Lives Matter protest took place at the park earlier but police said there was no indication the two incidents were connected.

Witnesses reported seeing two air ambulances and several police cars rush to the park on Saturday evening.

One witness described a lone assailant walking through a park filled with people and stabbing them at random.

“The park was pretty full. A lot of people sat around drinking with friends,” Lawrence Wort told the Press Association.

“One lone person walked though, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them.”

Wort said he saw three people being stabbed “in the neck and under the arms”.

The assailant then lunged at another group and “got one person in the back of the neck”, Wort said.

“Then when he realised everyone was starting to run, he ran out the park,” said the witness.

Officials said two people were being treated in the emergency department of Reading’s Berkshire Hospital.

An overwhelming majority of Britain’s serious crimes are committed with knives and other stabbing weapons because of the country’s strict gun ownership laws.