Warning: Graphic content
London: Police have arrested a Sudanese suspect after a brutal stabbing attack left a man fighting for his life in a Belfast hospital from wounds likened to an attempted beheading, setting off a political storm over crime and migration.
A graphic online video showed the assailant kneeling over the victim and yelling while brandishing a knife above his head, moments before onlookers rushed to help by wielding makeshift weapons against the attacker.
As outrage spread online after the attack on Monday night, conservative political leaders called on the police to reveal the ethnicity of the suspect and the details of the injuries to the victim, described as a man in his 40s.
Northern Ireland police initially described the suspect as Somali but later said he was Sudanese and said he was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder.
The political uproar came after a public debate about “two-tier policing” in the death of a young white man, Henry Nowak, at the hands of a Sikh assailant in Southampton last December, with footage showing the police had initially treated the victim as a suspect.
Hours after the Belfast attack, populist political leader Nigel Farage called on police to name the attacker.
“What happened in Belfast last night is horrific,” said Farage, the head of political party Reform UK. “The authorities must reveal the identity and status of the attacker immediately. The public are entitled to the truth.”
A rival right-wing politician, Rupert Lowe, said he had watched the footage of the attack and wanted the police to guarantee “full transparency” including the immigration status of the suspect.
Lowe, an MP who left Reform to lead his own party, Restore, linked the Belfast attack to the Southampton case and said the solution was to deport migrants and bring back the death penalty.
“I have had enough. The British people have had enough,” Lowe said on X.
“We do not have to live like this – there is another way. Death penalty, mass deportations, end mass immigration.”
The remarks escalated the political row over the attack as mainstream media outlets covered the case and the graphic video spread online, heightening concerns about crime.
A briefing on crime rates by the House of Commons Library found that there were 53,000 offences involving knives and similar sharp instruments in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. It said this was down by 1.2 per cent on the previous year.
The latest figures from the Police Service for Northern Ireland found there were 533 cases of violent crime involving knives and sharp instruments in the year to March, compared to 530 the previous year. The case numbers have fallen from 668 in 2022, 632 in 2023 and 608 in 2024.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had no tolerance for the “abhorrent” scenes in Belfast.
“The horrific attack in Belfast last night is sickening,” he said.
Conservative Party MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp linked the case to the migration debate and called for the release of information about the suspect.
“Last night’s brutal attempted beheading in Belfast is appalling. The government must ensure full details about the suspect’s nationality and immigration status are released. Total transparency is required,” he said.
“If it turns out this man is an illegal immigrant it would provide further evidence that the government’s lack of border control is endangering the public.”
Police Service of Northern Ireland assistant chief constable Ryan Henderson described the attack as “brutal” and said police were seeking to determine the motive.
“I want to reassure the local community that we are treating this attack with the utmost seriousness,” he said.
Hundreds of people rioted in Southampton on June 2 after the release of video evidence in the Nowak case showing police initially dismissed the young man’s statement that he had been stabbed and handcuffed him as a suspect.
Police initially told Nowak, 18, he would be arrested for assault. He died of his wounds soon after the stabbing on December 3 last year.
His killer, Vickrum Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder using a 21cm blade he carried as part of his Sikh faith. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.