Man charged following ‘horrific’ knife attack in Northern Ireland
By Issy Ronald, CNN
London (CNN) — Police have charged a 30-year-old man with attempted murder following a knife attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland, that has left the local community reeling and been condemned by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “horrific.”
Local police said Tuesday that the man was charged with “attempted murder, possession of an article with blade or point in a public place and threats to kill.” He is due to appear in court on Wednesday. Authorities said earlier that they had arrested a Sudanese man in his 30s on suspicion of attempted murder following the attack that left another man hospitalized in a serious condition.
Much of the attack, which took place on Monday night in northern Belfast, was filmed by a witness and has since gone viral on social media. In that footage, a man can be seen pinning another man, whose head is covered in blood, to the ground and attacking him before bystanders and police officers intervene. The victim sustained significant injuries to his eyes and serious wounds to his back and face, Northern Ireland’s Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said on Tuesday.
Currently, there is no evidence of any links to terrorism, Henderson said while stressing police are still in the early stages of their investigation. The suspect had legal right to reside in Northern Ireland, he added.
Police said the attack has prompted “strong community concerns” and called for a calm response, with Northern Ireland’s Police Chief Constable Jon Boutcher urging the public not to “let people who know nothing about Northern Ireland impact on the behaviors of our people in Northern Ireland from afar through social media.”
However, by Tuesday evening protesters were seen confronting police in London on Tuesday evening and at a street in Belfast where a bus was set ablaze. Images from Britain’s PA news agency showed charred vehicles on fire and thick plumes of smoke rising in various spots across Belfast.
Police acknowledged that “sporadic pockets of disorder” had broken out across Northern Ireland and that some vehicles had been set ablaze. Henderson urged people to remain calm, protest peacefully and “act responsibly” adding that officers are on the ground.
A year ago, several nights of racially motivated violent disorder broke out in the nearby town of Ballymena after two Romanian teenage boys were accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. All charges against the pair were eventually dropped.
The attack comes at a time when the UK’s political atmosphere is already charged. Last week, the release of bodycam footage of the death of White student Henry Nowak who was handcuffed by police in December after he had been fatally stabbed provoked a national outcry, with officers under fire for their conduct and far-right leaders accused of using the murder to stoke racist violence for political gain.
Prime Minister Starmer called Monday night’s attack “horrific” and “sickening,” adding that he had “absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”
“My thoughts are first and foremost with the victim, and I thank the first responders, including members of the public who intervened,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch, who leads the opposition center-right Conservative Party, immediately linked this attack to illegal immigration, without providing evidence, and urged police “to bring out the facts as quickly as possible so that we can get some clarity.”
Nigel Farage, whose hard-right populist Reform Party leads most opinion polls, echoed those calls, saying “authorities must reveal the identity and status of the attacker immediately.”
CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Hira Humayun contributed to this report.
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