Nottingham murder suspect described by witnesses as ‘black man with dreadlocks’

The suspect being questioned by police on suspicion of a triple murder in Nottingham is a 31-year-old local man, The Telegraph understands.

Eyewitnesses have described the man as black, with dreadlocks and a beard, and dressed in a hooded top.

At just after 4am on Tuesday, police were alerted to reports that two people had been stabbed to death in Ilkeston Road in the city.

An eyewitness who spoke to the BBC described a man being on foot and attacking two people before walking away.

The witness said: “Being a hot night, I had the window open and I just heard some awful, blood-curdling screams.

“I looked out of the window and saw a black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people. It was a girl, and a man or boy she was with – they looked quite young.

“She was screaming: ‘Help!’ I just wish I’d shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant. I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing – four or five times.

“The lad collapsed in the middle of the road. The girl stumbled towards a house and didn’t move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that’s where they found her.

“I’d say it all happened within five or six minutes. The attacker then just walked off up Ilkeston Road towards town, as calm as anything.”

Around an hour later, between 5am and 5.30am, residents in Magdala Road, two miles from the city centre were woken by the sound of a huge bang. A body was later found in the street.

While details remain unclear, it is believed a third person may have been killed in a hit and run attack on the normally quiet residential road.

A short time later, a woman who was on her way to work at a B&Q store saw a man driving a large white van that was being followed by a police car.

Lynn Haggitt told Channel 4 News: “It was half past five and I saw a white van pull up by the side of me. It was white. There was a police car behind it which came up slowly, no flashing lights.

“The man in the driver’s seat looked in his mirror and saw the police car behind it. The white van then backed up on the corner of the street and went into two people.”

Mrs Haggit described the van driver as having dreadlocks and a beard and wearing a hat.

A suspect was arrested by armed police who stopped a white Vauxhall van at the junction of Maples Street and Bentinck Road, around a mile from Nottingham city centre, at around 5.30am.

Witnesses described seeing police removing a large knife from the van as the man was taken away by police.