Nottingham attacks: Witness heard 'bang' and 'scream' as van hit people
A woman says she was on her way to work when she heard a bang like a car hitting a bollard, followed by someone screaming - and then saw two people on the floor in the road.
Tuesday 13 June 2023 21:43, UK
A witness has described the moment she heard a sudden "bang" followed by "screaming" as a white van drove into people in Nottingham city centre.
It follows the arrest of a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murder after three people were found dead in the city centre in the early hours of Tuesday.
Police were called to Ilkeston Road just after 4am where two students were found dead in the street from stab wounds.
A man was also found dead with knife wounds in Magdala Road.
Officers were then called to Milton Street where a van had tried to run over three people. They are currently being treated in hospital - one was left in a critical condition.
'I turned and saw two people on the floor, on the road'
The witness, Frances, said she was on her way to work at around 5.30am when "all of a sudden" she heard a "bang" which sounded like a car hitting a bollard.
She said she had just got off a bus and was heading over to the market square where she crossed the road at Theatre Royal and then heard the collision.
"I turned around and then saw the two people on the floor, on the road," she told Sky News.
"Someone was screaming, I think a gentleman ran over to help as well.
"The van was still there, and then moments later the van took off and then the police arrived.
"I ran over to see how the two people were, just to see what I could do to help.
"There was a male and a female. The female - she could speak, she was in pain from the impact of hitting the ground. She had hit her head as well. She was still able to speak.
"The gentleman, I think, took the full brunt of the van, and he had head injuries but was still awake, he didn't lose consciousness at that stage."
On reflection, she said she did not realise what was happening at the time: "I thought it was just a hit-and-run.
"I went to work, and then I started hearing more, that three people had been potentially killed and that a third person had been injured as well."
She said: "It's quite shocking. You are on your way into work, it's the last thing anybody wants to be seeing or dealing with."
Read more:
Nottingham van attack: What we know so far
'Awful, blood-curdling screams'
Frances said the response of the police to the incident was "brilliant", adding: "They were there very quickly and they dealt with the situation brilliantly.
"I couldn't say anything more positively in regard to the police and the ambulance crew as well," she added.
Another witness described the moment he heard "awful, blood-curdling screams" as he saw two people being stabbed in the city centre.
The witness, who did not give his name, said he looked out of his window to see a "black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people" on Ilkeston Road, close to the junction with Bright Street, at around 4am.
He told the BBC: "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.
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Man found in 'pool of blood'
Petra Gyuricska, 39, said she found the body of the other victim - who police said was a man in his fifties - in a "pool of blood" on Magdala Road as she went to work with her husband.
"I thought maybe he was homeless, then I saw the blood. I was trying to call the police," she told Sky News.
Said she police tried to resuscitate the victim - who had more than one chest wound.
Police later said they believe the suspect in custody stabbed the man to death and then used his van to drive into people.
'Weapons drawn'
A man who witnessed the arrest of the suspect on Bentinck Road told Sky News: "The first thing we heard is screaming, this is a usual thing in this area, but for it to be continuous for that long wasn't normal.
"I go to the front. It's just kind of the aftermath of the guy on the ground.
"I'm not too sure what (police) were pointing at him. It could have been rubber bullet guns or a Taser. You can't really tell in that moment... there were weapons drawn. Weapons were drawn."
A woman who also witnessed the arrest said: "I saw police shout at him, like 'get out of the car'. And then I saw them drag him out of a vehicle and put him on the floor and they were like tussling on the floor.
"Their weapons were drawn and then they took him away."
Glen Gretton said he was woken up at around 5am by the sounds of a series of police cars passing his home.
The 46-year-old delivery driver, who lives in a flat in Mansfield Road in Sherwood, said: "I heard a police car go past. It was driving extremely quickly, followed by another one, another one.
"They just kept coming so I knew something quite major… was happening somewhere around the city centre."
Twitter user Robbie Paul-Stone wrote in a post that he saw someone "being treated on the side of the road".
"I didn't see any cars. It's also closed by Theatre Royal but couldn't see anything (that was about 7.15am)," he wrote.