Police have announced the arrest of a Sudanese man following a stabbing in Belfast last night that left one person seriously injured, an incident condemned by the prime minister and prompting calls for protests from .
A video of the attack, with gruesome images, was circulated on social media. It shows the attacker sitting on top of a bleeding man lying on the ground, trying to cut his throat. Three men are seen intervening, one of whom subdues the assailant by hitting him with a bat.
“The horrific attack that took place last night in Belfast is appalling,” Starmer said in a post on X. “I have zero tolerance for such horrific scenes of violence on our streets. My thoughts are first and foremost with the victim and I thank the citizens who intervened,” he added.
The attack is grist to the mill of the extreme right
Yesterday’s incident comes a week after a violent protest in Southampton against the police’s handling of the murder of a white student, Henry Nowak, by a Sikh youth last December. Far-right figures, including activist Tommy Robinson, joined the violent protests.
In Belfast, the alleged perpetrator of last night’s attack, aged 30 according to police, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Police later identified him as a Sudanese national after initially saying he was “probably Somali”.
The victim, in his 40s, continues to be hospitalized in a serious condition.
Appeals for calm
Ireland’s Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein and Deputy Prime Minister Emma Little-Pendzely of the DUP, as well as Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, condemned the attack and appealed for calm.
“This brutal attack has undoubtedly caused great shock and concern in the community. I want to reassure the local population that we are taking this matter with the utmost seriousness,” Deputy Police Chief Ryan Henderson said in a police statement.
He called on anyone who witnessed the attack or has footage from car cameras or CCTV in the area to contact police. “An investigation has been launched to establish the motive” for the attack, he added.
At the same time, he stressed that Northern Ireland police would “increase their presence” on the streets of the British countryside, responding to calls for demonstrations after the attack. He added that the attacker was Sudanese and, according to initial reports, has a residence permit, and that the possibility of a terrorist act had been ruled out at this stage.
While the video has garnered millions of views on social media, police have asked the public not to share it, saying that doing so “could cause further trauma to the victim’s family and jeopardize the ongoing investigation”.
“Full attack” from the extreme right
The far-right immediately sought to capitalize on the incident, with some self-proclaimed “patriotic” social media accounts calling for a demonstration in Belfast tonight and urging local businesses to close.
The leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, called on the authorities to reveal the “identity” and “status” of the suspect, arguing that the public “has a right to know the truth”.
Robinson called for another rally this evening in Southampton, outside a hotel previously used as an anti-immigrant rally.
In June 2025, a neighborhood housing migrants was targeted and dozens of police officers were injured in Northern Ireland after the arrest of two Romanian-speaking teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl in Ballymena, northwest of Belfast.
In the summer of 2024, riots rocked around 30 cities across the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland, after three young girls were stabbed to death by Axel Rudakubana, a young British man born to Rwandan parents.
