The University of Nottingham students were attacked as they returned home from a post-exam party, the Times reported.

“Barnaby’s parents are in bits as you can imagine,” his grandfather Phil Robson was quoted by newspapers as saying.+

The University of Nottingham said it was “shocked and devastated by the news” and its “thoughts are with those affected, their families and friends”.

Witness Lynn Haggitt was on her way to work when a white van pulled up beside her at 5.30am. She saw the driver look in his mirror and spot a police car approaching slowly from behind without its lights on. The driver then accelerated and struck a man and woman at a street corner, she said.

“He went straight into them, he didn’t even bother to turn,” Haggitt told reporters.

“The woman went on the curb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it – it’s really shaken me up.”

The driver then drove at speed through the city centre with police on his tail, she added.

She said the wounded man appeared to have a head injury but was helped to his feet. The woman was sitting on the curb and appeared to be OK.

Kane Brady, a student at the University of Nottingham, said he awoke to shouts outside his window of “armed police” and noises as loud as gunshots.

He said he saw officers holding stun guns and a man being dragged out of the van and pinned to the ground.

“I saw him getting arrested, him trying to resist,” he told reporters.

“When they opened the van, I saw a large knife being pulled out and then straight away that’s when police closed off both roads.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked the police and emergency services for their response and said police must be given the time to do their work.

“My thoughts are with those injured, and the family and loved ones of those who have lost their lives,” he wrote on Twitter.

Reuters, AP

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