Grinning Sudanese ‘knifeman licked his lips with victim’s blood’ during Belfast ‘attempted beheading’
A GRINNING Sudanese migrant with “evil in his eyes” stabbed a man then tried to behead him, horrified witnesses said.
Footage shows the attacker holding a knife aloft and yelling what sounded like: “Die local.” during the attack in Belfast.
Residents were alerted by screams in a residential area close to Antrim Road at around 10.30pm on Monday.
The attacker repeatedly knifed his victim in the back and when he slumped to the ground he leapt on him and sat across his chest.
As he began sawing at his victim’s neck, locals screamed at him to get off, but he warned them off by waving his knife at them
One shocked woman said: “He’s trying to cut his head off”.
Wearing a long-sleeved top and dark trousers, he continued to cut at the man’s neck until a local ran towards him and hit him over the head with a hurling stick.
Others joined in and hauled him off, with the attacker trying to bite them as they restrained him until police arrived. He was then arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Karen Mulholland, 36, and her partner were just arriving home as the attack unfolded.
She said the attacker appeared so calm that it “looked like me cutting up a chicken breast”.
Karen, who called 999, added: “My partner stopped, opened the door, and the black guy turned and pointed the knife at him, and looked him right in the eye, as if ‘You dare. You dare come near me.’”
She said her partner “saw evil in that guy’s eyes”.
She went on: “He was licking his lips with the blood. He was enjoying it. I thought the attacker was going to kill him.
“He was smiling when he was committing the attack and was also trying to bite people who were trying to help the man.
“My partner was considering knocking him down with the car but he didn’t want to injure the other people who were helping the poor man. The police had to put a mask on the attacker because he was just going mad..”
Another neighbour ran into the street in his pyjamas to help,
But his partner said he was so traumatised by what he saw he is likely to need medical help, according to his partner,
She said: “He couldn’t even sleep last night. He just needed to be out of the house today, but I definitely think he’s going to need medication to help settle him.”
Another woman said local kids had been playing football on a grass patch next to where the attacker happened just ten minutes before.
The shocked resident said: “They could have witnessed it all.
“If it had been earlier, would he have attacked kids?”
The victim was yesterday being treated in hospital for multiple stab wounds including serious injuries to his eyes.
The suspect was not on any national security databases and was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) before the assault.
Amid mounting tension, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher revealed the man had travelled from Sudan to Paris and then to Dublin on unknown dates.
He then got a bus to Belfast in February 2023 when he immediately claimed asylum.
That September he was granted leave to remain in the UK until 2028.
