Three people killed in stabbing attack in English town of Reading-reports

Three people were killed in a stabbing attack in a park in the southern English town of Reading on Saturday and broadcaster Sky News said police were treating the incident as terrorism-related.

Three people were killed in a stabbing attack in a park in the southern English town of Reading on Saturday and broadcaster Sky News said police were treating the incident as terrorism-related. Police said they arrested a man at the scene. They did not confirm whether anybody had died.

The Telegraph newspaper, the BBC and Sky News said three people had been killed. Two people were rushed to a hospital in the area, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

A witness quoted by the Mirror newspaper said the knifeman "shouted some unintelligible words" before stabbing people. "My thoughts are with all of those affected by the appalling incident in Reading and my thanks to the emergency services on the scene," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The stabbings took place at the site of Black Lives Matter anti-racisim protest in the town earlier on Saturday but police said it did not appear to be connected. "There is no indication that this incident is linked to the Black Lives Matter protest that took place in Reading today," the Thames Valley Police said in a tweet.

A BLM supporter said on Facebook that the incident happened a few hours after the protest had ended and people who attended the demonstration were unharmed. Video footage posted on Twitter showed paramedics rushing to help at least three people who were bleeding on the ground in a park. Reuters was unable to verify the footage independently.

The head of the local council authority in Reading, Jason Brock told people to stay away from the town centre. The National Police Chiefs' Council, representing senior police officers, urged people on Twitter to avoid speculation about the incident and to refrain from sharing of video or images of it.

There were four attacks in Britain blamed by authorities on terrorism in 2017 that killed 36 people, the most deadly of which occurred at the end of a concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in Manchester, northern England, with other attacks at London Bridge and near parliament. Last year the government downgraded the national terrorism threat level to "substantial," meaning an attack is likely, from "severe."