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MACHETE FIEND
Manchester Arndale stabbing – Terror suspect yelled ‘I’m going to f**k you up’ as he knifed four shoppers
A TERROR suspect armed with a machete yelled: “I’m going to f*** you up” as he knifed four people at one of Britain’s biggest shopping centres yesterday.
Shocked witnesses told how his rampage started in a Starbucks on the ground floor of Manchester’s Arndale at 11am.
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The attacker lunged randomly as shoppers fled towards the centre’s Exchange Court. Two community support officers who tried to confront him were chased away.
Within five minutes armed cops detained him in Market Street outside the centre.
Footage showed a cop pinning down a man as another held a Taser, though it is not thought to have been fired.
The 41-year-old man was held on suspicion of terror offences and assessed by specialist doctors.
He has been detained under the Mental Health Act with terror cops still in charge of the investigation keeping an "open mind".
Sources said he spoke of an Islamist motive after being arrested.
Police said none of the injuries were life-threatening. The centre was evacuated but reopened later.
TEEN VICTIM NAMED
One victim was Chloe McGurk, 19, of Glengormley, Northern Ireland.
Ellen Da Conceicao said their Arndale visit had been the first stop on a “girly weekend”, but added that her pal was “on the mend”.
A Ghanaian Marks & Spencer worker, 49, visiting the Starbucks with her friends is said to have been slashed several times.
One victim was knifed in the back and stomach, two had hand injuries and one was stabbed in the leg.
Police said a fifth person did not need hospital treatment.
Shazia Asif, 40, a carer from Oldham, said: “I was upstairs in Next, I looked down to Starbucks and saw a woman had been stabbed.
“There was a lot of blood, somebody had a scarf around her arm.”
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Witness Freddie Houlder, 22, said: “I was in the Office store when a woman rushed in. She had been grazed by a knife outside a shop.
“She burst into tears. She was so lucky she was wearing a thick jacket. The guy was running after as many people as possible.”
A store manager said he sheltered ten people including a woman who had been “lunged at”.
Others said the suspect was hostile to centre staff before the rampage.
Janet Loudon, 21, said: “I came out of work at 10.30am and saw a man shouting racial slurs towards an Arndale worker who was also black.
“He was telling the public, ‘I’m going to f*** you up’ repeatedly. He got more and more agitated. He was pointing at the police and staff saying things like ‘Just because I’m a n*****.”
“I walked on but saw police run inside the Arndale and heard someone shout ‘knife’ and another shout ‘bomb’. Everyone was panicking.
“That was when I heard people had been stabbed."
MAN SHOUTING 'RACIST COMMENTS'
A friend of Janet said: “There were two police officers at the tram stop and I saw a black man shouting racist comments on the street.
“The public were saying that there were two bombs. I heard the attacker nearly went for a baby in a pram but somehow he was stopped.”
TV’s Gogglebox star Julie Malone tweeted that she was “shaking” after fleeing the Arndale.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said: “We do not know the motivation for this terrible attack.
“It appears random, is certainly brutal and of course extremely frightening for anyone who saw it.”
He added: “Although the injuries are nasty, thankfully none are life-threatening.”
PM Boris Johnson tweeted: “Shocked by the Manchester incident and my thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.”
ATTACKS IN BRAVE CITY
TWO IRA members planted the UK’s biggest mainland bomb since World War Two on June 15, 1996 outside the Arndale Centre.
TWO IRA members planted the UK’s biggest mainland bomb since World War Two on June 15, 1996 outside the Arndale Centre.
The 3,300lb van device went off after a warning, with 220 injured.
Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured 139 after an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.
MOST READ IN NEWS
The lone-wolf attack is one of several this year. Yesterday neo-Nazi Stephen Balliet admitted killing two people near a synagogue in Halle, Germany, on Wednesday.
Earlier this month an admin worker with Islamist links killed four at a police HQ in Paris, France.
In August, a gunman killed 22 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
And in March a gunman killed 51 at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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Shoppers panic and flee Manchester Arndale Centre after it was ‘evacuated’ over anti-social behaviour from youths
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