U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called for calm Tuesday after police said they arrested a Sudanese suspect over a stabbing in residential Belfast in Northern Ireland that drew national attention because of graphic videos of the attack shared online.
Police said the victim, a man in his 40s, was taken to the hospital with serious injuries to his eyes, face and back late Monday. They said the suspect, who is in his 30s, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody. A kitchen knife was found at the scene.
Police were trying to determine the motive, but there was no information to suggest the attack was terrorism-related, said Ryan Henderson, assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. He added that police were not seeking anyone else connected to the attack.
“This brutal attack will have sent shock waves through the community, causing real concern,” he said.
Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, told Parliament that the perpetrator was living in the U.K. under a five-year visa and urged authorities to curb “uncontrolled immigration.”
Police believe the suspect had been granted permission to remain in the country, and that he lived near the scene of the crime, Henderson said. He declined to provide more details citing the ongoing investigation.
When pressed on the question in Parliament, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said he could not confirm whether the alleged attacker came to the U.K. illegally.
Starmer condemned the attack as “sickening" and said that he had “no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”
His office said “it is time for calm," adding “it’s important that police have the time and space to investigate appropriately."
Police and senior politicians urged people not to share the graphic images of the attack that were circulating online, or to spread disinformation about the situation.
Last week a separate case of a university student who was stabbed to death in Southampton, England in December was seized on by activists and U.S. Vice President JD Vance who blamed immigration for the violence.
Henry Nowak, who was white, was killed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh who falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded Nowak as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Digwa was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with a Sikh dagger and sentenced last week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term. But the case has spurred heated debates about policing and race, and a protest over Nowak's death turned violent with some attacking police with chairs and rocks. Several people were charged with violent disorder over the protest.
