A witness has described the moment she heard a sudden “bang” followed by “screaming” as a white van drove into two people in Nottingham city centre.

It follows the arrest of a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murder after three people were found dead in the city centre in the early hours of Tuesday.

Police were called to Ilkeston Road just after 4am where two people were found dead in the street.

A man was also found dead in Magdala Road.

Nottingham van attack: Follow latest updates

Officers were then called to another incident in Milton Street where a van had attempted to run over three people. They are currently being treated in hospital.

The witness, Frances, who has lived in the city for more than 20 years, said she was on her way to work at around 5.30am when “all of a sudden” she heard a “bang” which sounded like a car hitting a bollard.

She said she had just got off a bus and was heading over to the market square where she crossed the road at Theatre Royal and then heard the collision.

“I turned around and then saw the two people on the floor, on the road,” she told Sky News.

“Someone was screaming, I think a gentleman ran over to help as well.

“The van was still there, and then moments later the van took off and then the police arrived.

“I ran over to see how the two people were, just to see what I could do to help.

“There was a male and a female. The female – she could speak, she was in pain from the impact of hitting the ground. She had hit her head as well. She was still able to speak.

“The gentleman, I think, took the full brunt of the van, and he had head injuries but was still awake, he didn’t lose consciousness at that stage.”

On reflection, she said she did not realise what was happening at the time: “I thought it was just a hit-and-run.

“I went to work, and then I started hearing more, that three people had been potentially killed and that a third person had been injured as well.”

She said: “It’s quite shocking. You are on your way into work, it’s the last thing anybody wants to be seeing or dealing with.”

Read more:
Three dead and man arrested after ‘major incident’ in Nottingham
Nottingham van attack: What we know so far
Suspect’s motive and ideology: What will be at forefront of his interrogators’ minds

Frances said the response of the police to the incident was “brilliant”, adding: “They were there very quickly and they dealt with the situation brilliantly.

“I couldn’t say anything more positively in regard to the police and the ambulance crew as well,” she added.

Another witness described the moment he heard “awful, blood-curdling screams” as he saw two people being stabbed in the city centre.

The witness, who did not give his name, said he looked out of his window to see a “black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people” on Ilkeston Road, close to the junction with Bright Street, at around 4am.

He told the BBC: “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.”

The man said he called the police who arrived within five minutes, before paramedics tried to revive the pair for 40 minutes.

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Glen Gretton said he was woken up at around 5am by the sounds of a series of police cars passing his home.

The 46-year-old delivery driver, who lives in a flat in Mansfield Road in Sherwood, said: “I heard a police car go past. It was driving extremely quickly, followed by another one, another one.

“They just kept coming so I knew something quite major… was happening somewhere around the city centre.”

Twitter user Robbie Paul-Stone wrote in a post that he saw someone “being treated on the side of the road”.

“I didn’t see any cars. It’s also closed by Theatre Royal but couldn’t see anything (that was about 7.15am),” he wrote.

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