A police cordon tape is seen at the scene of reported multiple stabbings in Reading, Britain, June 20, 2020. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra
June 21, 2020
By Peter Nicholls
READING, England (Reuters) – A stabbing rampage in the southern English town of Reading, in which three people were killed and three others were seriously wounded, is not currently being treated as terrorism, British health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday.
A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after the stabbings on Saturday evening in a park in Reading, which is about 40 miles (65 km) west of London.
“This is not currently being treated as a terrorism incident, but of course we are closely monitoring the situation,” Hancock told BBC TV.
Police said they were not looking for any more suspects in relation to the incident and there was no intelligence to suggest a further risk to the public.
Detectives said they were keeping an open mind as to the motive for the attack, which took place on a sunny evening hours after a rally by anti-racism protesters in the park, Forbury Gardens but appeared to be unrelated to that.
“The Black Lives Matter event had finished some three hours previous and was by all accounts a very well conducted peaceful demonstration and this is not a connected attack with that whatsoever,” Jason Brock, the head of the local council authority, told the BBC.
Current coronavirus restrictions mean venues like pubs are closed, so many people in Britain gather in parks in the evenings to meet friends.
A witness said the attack began when a man suddenly veered toward a group of about eight to 10 friends and began stabbing them. The nature of the attack, reminiscent of a number of recent incidents in Britain that authorities considered to be terrorism, had raised concern that this too had been inspired by militants.
In February, police shot dead a man, previously jailed for promoting violent Islamist material, who had stabbed two people on a busy street in south London. Last November another man who had been jailed for terrorism offences stabbed two people to death on London Bridge before he too was shot dead by police.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has described the incident as appalling, held a meeting on Sunday with security officials, senior ministers and police to be updated about the Reading investigation, a spokesman for Johnson said.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Goodman and Frances Kerry)
