Three treated for injuries after ‘knife attack’ at railway station
Police quickly moved to restrain a main in the incident at Manchester Victoria.
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A knifeman shouted “Allah” after attacking and stabbing innocent commuters at a train station, an eye-witness said.
Sam Clack, a BBC producer, was on a platform at Manchester Victoria railway station waiting for a tram when he witnessed the attack.
British Transport Police (BTP) confirmed three people, including a police officer, was injured in the stabbing.
Mr Clack, 38, said: “I just heard this most blood curdling scream and looked down the platform.
“What it looked like was a guy in his 60s with a woman of similar age and another guy all dressed in black.
“It looked like they were having a fight but she was screaming in this blood curdling way.
“I saw police in high-viz come towards him.
“He came towards me. I looked down and saw he had a kitchen knife with a black handle with a good, 12 inch blade.
“It was just fear, pure fear.”
Mr Clack, on his way to catch a tram home, said police officers used a Taser and pepper spray before, “six or seven” officers jumped on the man.
Mr Clack, who is from Newcastle but is working in Manchester for the BBC, said as the suspect was held down, he said: “As long as you keep bombing other countries this sort of shit is going to keep happening.”
He said it looked like both the man in his 60s and the woman with him had been stabbed but both were conscious and were walked to a waiting ambulance.
BTP said they were called at 8.52pm to reports of man with a knife who has been detained.
Two members of the public have been taken to hospital with knife injuries and a BTP officer is being treated for a knife wound to the shoulder.
Mr Clack, who said he works for BBC Radio 5 Live, said had been out with friends for a New Year’s Eve drink in the city centre and was waiting for the East Didsbury tram home when the attack happened.
He said he heard the knifeman shouting, “Allah” during the attack.
He added: “He shouted it before, he shouted it during it – Allah.”
As police appeared “within seconds” the knife-man backed down the platform towards where he was standing alone.
He continued: “I just had a feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Here’s a man whose very agitated, angry, skittish. It appears he had already attacked someone. He had police coming towards him and he’s coming towards me.
“I thought what I need to do is jump onto the tracks because next thing he’s going to do is turn around and stab me. He’s looking about, side to side and jumpy.
“At one point one of the police officers fired the Taser but it missed him. “Then he got pepper sprayed and tasered and he want to the ground.
“The guy, his exact words were, he said, ‘As long as you keep bombing other countries, this sort of shit is going to keep happening’.”
Mr Clack said he then realised the man in his 60s had been stabbed as there was blood “splattered” on the platform. “He was stabbed in the head and once in the back,” he said.
“His shirt was covered in blood. His partner was 60-ish. She had a bandage on her head.”
He added: “It was scary. I have never been so scared in my life. Someone with a knife six to eight feet away, he had just stabbed someone. It was the proximity.
“It just highlights the fact that it can happen anywhere.
“It’s just a guy with a knife on a platform. It can happen anywhere. Anyone can do it.
“Are we going to call it a terror thing?”