Chilling fatal attack confused as game of duck, duck, goose
Several people have been stabbed in a British city with three reportedly dead.
Sky News says police are treating the incident in the southern English town of Reading, west of London, on Saturday as terrorism-related.
Police say that several people have been taken to hospital after the Saturday evening attack in the city's Forbury Gardens Park and one person is in custody.
Police said they arrested a man at the scene. They did not confirm whether anybody had died.
The BBC and the Telegraph newspaper said three people had been killed.
"My thoughts are with all of those affected by the appalling incident in Reading and my thanks to the emergency services on the scene," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The Telegraph said earlier that police were treating the incident as a random attack.
Witness thought friends were playing game
A man who was drinking wine in the park with friends described the horror that unfolded after a man approached a group of friends who were sitting in a circle chatting.
He told The Mirror he noticed the group because a man was running around the circle “tapping them on the head”.
“I thought they were playing duck duck goose and thought someone had been sick, we realised it was blood spraying out,” he said.
As the attacker headed for another group, the witness and his friends ran from the park.
He described the chilling scenes as “strange”.
“Not like you see in films, there was no screaming,” he told the Mirror.
"We were running by people dancing in groups – they hadn't seen what happened."
Black Lives Matter protest held hours before attack
The stabbings took place at the site of a Black Lives Matter protest in the town earlier on Saturday but police said it did not appear to be connected.
"There is no indication that this incident is linked to the Black Lives Matter protest that took place in Reading today," the Thames Valley Police said in a tweet.
Police attended at around 7pm along with other emergency services.
Officers arrested a man at the scene who is now in police custody.— Thames Valley Police (@ThamesVP) June 20, 2020
A BLM supporter said on Facebook that the incident happened a few hours after the protest had ended and people who attended the demonstration were unharmed.
Video footage posted on Twitter showed paramedics rushing to help at least three people who were bleeding on the ground in a park. Reuters was unable to verify the footage independently.
The head of the local council authority in Reading, Jason Brock urged people to stay away from the town centre.
The National Police Chiefs' Council, representing senior police officers, urged people on Twitter to avoid speculation about the incident and to refrain from sharing of video or images of it.
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