Widely-viewed video of brutal stabbing on anniversary of anti-migrant riots prompts fears of unrest
Daily Telegraph 09/06/26
The viral video was barbaric and shocking. A Sudanese man held a kitchen knife aloft moments before launching a ferocious attack on the helpless victim he was straddling in a Belfast street.
Moments after the blade glinted in the street lights, three brave residents rushed the attacker as horrified residents and passers-by looked on.
The 54-second mobile phone clip captured the best and worst of humanity. It has been viewed millions of times.
The events on Kinnaird Avenue, a residential road in the north of the Northern Irish city, began shortly after 10.30pm.
Nimon Abshir, a 25-year-old Somali immigrant, had just parked his car on the road to collect a visa document a friend had printed for him.
The warehouse cleaner was shocked to see two men he at first thought were fighting on the ground.
He told The Telegraph: “I saw two guys – the black guy is on top and the white guy is underneath.”
Mr Abshir said he shouted “hey, hey!” at the attacker, as he heard a “blood-curdling scream” before the man on the ground yelled: “Help me!”
He said: “Then I saw the knife and the blood. I beeped my horn to alert other people.” He said he had spoken to a female jogger who had dialled 999 at 10.32pm.
In the mobile phone video, a voice, believed to be the woman filming the incident, can be heard shouting: “Get off him, you f---ing rat,” before yelling “hurry up” and “get him” as three men charge the assailant.
The men kicked and punched the knifeman before trying to wrestle the bloodied victim free.
One passer-by, Maitiu Mag Tighearnan, swung a hurley, a wooden stick used in the Irish sport of hurling, hitting the Sudanese man repeatedly on the head.
As police pulled up, the woman shouted “there’s a cop, back off”, before two officers rushed the attacker.
The Telegraph has used a translator to try to establish what the attacker shouted in the footage.
Speaking apparently in Sudanese Arabic, the knifeman appeared to be urging someone or something called “Jala” to come to his aid.
Mr Abshir described the attacker as “not human”, adding: “Even now I’m scared. I can picture the way he did it. He’s not human. He did it again and again.”
When Adam Abdi arrived home to Kinnaird Close, he saw the knifeman lying on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. The victim was being transferred to an ambulance.
Mr Abdi said: “When they put him in the emergency vehicle, he had lots of blood on his neck and eyes. I was shocked.”
Another resident complained that people in some cars were simply filming the incident.
Fears of fresh unrest
The attack, classified as “a critical incident” by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), brought immigration into sharp focus once again.
It came on the anniversary of last year’s riots over immigration in Northern Ireland, which began when two Roma teenagers were charged with sexually assaulting a female from Ballymena.
One year on, politicians, police and community leaders called for calm, fearing fresh unrest.
At 11.39pm on Monday – around an hour after the attack – Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, shared the clip with his two million followers on X. The video soon circulated widely online.
By 8am on Tuesday, Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, posted a retweet of a still from the video, adding: “Truly horrific... Police must reveal asap nationality, status and known history of suspect to prevent misinformation circulating, as recommended by [the Government’s] terrorism tsar Jonathan Hall KC.”
Shortly after 10am, Sir Keir Starmer described the attack as “horrific” and “sickening”, thanking “first responders, including members of the public who intervened”.
An hour later, Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, condemned the attack, adding: “I think a lot of people will start wondering, yet again – is this someone who should not have been in our country? Have there been failings around our borders?”
Rupert Lowe, the Restore Britain leader and Great Yarmouth MP, demanded answers from the Prime Minister “as a matter of urgency” because “the British people need to know the full truth”.
On Tuesday morning, PSNI was inundated with requests from the media to clarify whether the video was real and who the attacker was.
The force’s initial statement that he was a Somali had to be corrected. The assailant was from Sudan, police said, adding that the investigation had progressed.
The force added: “This is a fast-time investigation and we will continue to prHowever, social media plans for protests were becoming a worrying development that the police needed to address.
One message, described as having been “forwarded many times” on WhatsApp and seen by The Telegraph, predicted a “mad day in Belfast”. It urged “men of the age of 18 and over” to “wear dark clothing ... and be prepared to fight or be arrested”.
It was not long before Belfast city council declared that “due to anticipated protests planned this evening, all council services will not operate tonight”.
At lunchtime, Jim Shannon, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) representative for Strangford, told the House of Commons: “Tensions are inflamed, and at this moment I am aware of planned protests throughout my constituency, Strangford.
“I am also aware that many of those who intend to attend do so not because they are frightened for their family alone, but instead feel their fears are ignored when they make a good and grand statement.”
The call for calm was repeated throughout the day. At 2.20pm, at a delayed press conference, PSNI’s Asst Chief Constable Ryan Henderson singled out the bravery of those members of the public who “ran towards danger to intervene” and help the victim.
But the media was also eager to establish the suspect’s immigration status.
“My understanding is that the individual was given leave to remain in Northern Ireland, but I know that colleagues in the Home Office will be confirming the exact details of the status in the coming days and hours,” said Mr Henderson.
He added that he understood the suspect had entered the UK via Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and lived close to where the attack took place.
On Kinnard Avenue, local people expressed concern about refugees who were housed nearby in apartment blocks managed by Radius Housing, a social housing organisation operating across Northern Ireland.
Pointing to the flats, one neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “Those flats are full of migrants and druggies. It’s been building for some time that something bad was going to happen.”
Another neighbour, Nick, a 50-year-old who has lived in the area for four years, said: “It made me think of the Lee Rigby killing. You get the police out here all the time. It’s a nightmare – if I knew what it was like before I moved in, I wouldn’t have.”
A Radius Housing spokesman said: “This is a very sensitive live police investigation, so we will not be making any comment at this time.”
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