Northern Ireland police have announced the arrest of a man suspected of being the perpetrator of a knife attack that took place last night in Belfast in the Kinnaird Avenue area, in the north of the city. The stabbing occurred, among other things, in a city already marked by anti-immigration unrest and in a context that is still affected by past tensions linked to the legacy of the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland which ended in 1998.
The images spread on social media sparked condemnation from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and calls for demonstrations from the far right. The video of the attack is particularly bloody.
The video of the Belfast attack, Starmer: “Abhorrent”
The video of the attack, described by Starmer as “revolting”, shows the attacker, described by Northern Irish police as probably of Somali origin, sitting on top of an injured man covered in blood as he attempts to cut his throat. The forty-year-old who was attacked is now hospitalized in serious condition with injuries to his face, neck and back.
The case comes just days after a demonstration was held in Southampton, southern England, to protest the police handling of the murder of a white student last December blamed on a young Sikh. British far-right figures also attended the demonstration, including activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also spoke on the matter, speaking of “repugnant” aggression, calling for zero tolerance for episodes of violence like these on the streets of the United Kingdom.
Farage: “Reveal identity and status of the attacker”
As happened with other news events, Nigel Farage, leader of the Trumpian Reform UK, although investigations are still ongoing to understand the motive behind the stabbing, added fuel to the fire, asking the authorities to “immediately reveal the identity and status of the attacker”, as well as maintaining that “the public must know the truth”.
The Belfast stabbing comes in a country already shaken by deep controversy over the case of Henry Nowak: the 18-year-old stabbed to death on 3 December last in a street in Southampton by a young British man of Sikh Indian roots, Vickrum Digwa, and handcuffed and then in his death throes by the first two officers who intervened on the scene, who initially allowed themselves to be convinced by the murderer that the victim was a racist attacker.