UK authorities pleaded for calm following a knife attack in Belfast that led to the arrest of a Sudanese national and prompted protest calls from the far right.
Video circulating online of the late Monday attack appeared to show the assailant stabbing at his victim’s head before being beaten away by passers-by, one of them using a hurling stick. With the victim hospitalized in serious condition, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the incident as “horrific” and “abhorrent.”
The incident is the latest in a string of racially-charged attacks providing fodder to the hard and far right in the UK. Anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known more often as Tommy Robinson, posted video of the Belfast incident online, referring to the attacker as an “invader.” He also amplified calls for Tuesday-night protests across the UK.
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“All of us have a responsibility now to urge calm and let the police do their job,” Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn told the House of Commons on Tuesday. In a May report, Bloomberg economics has the UK rising in a ranking of countries exposed to civil unrest, even while its score has been moderating over the past few years.
Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson on Tuesday said the victim had suffered significant injuries to his eyes, as well as slash wounds on his back and face, he said. He added that police currently have no reason to believe the incident is terror-related.
After police earlier said they believed the man they arrested in his 30s to be from Somalia, Henderson said officials now thought him to come from Sudan and to have arrived in Northern Ireland from Dublin, before being given leave to remain in the UK.
The attack comes after the case of a murdered British teen sparked both violent protests in Southampton last week as well as rebukes from the Trump administration, who criticized UK policing and immigration policy.
The publication of police body cam footage showed officers handcuffing a dying Henry Nowak, 18, after his killer — a British-born Sikh — falsely accused him of racial abuse. Police refused to believe him when he said he’d been stabbed and couldn’t breathe.
In a post on X, the US State Department accused UK police of treating white people unfavorably, while Vice President JD Vance blamed European leaders’ embrace of “the politics of self-hatred” for the teenager’s death.
In April, London police arrested a British man of Somali origins following a stabbing which left two Jewish men, ages 76 and 34, in the hospital.
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Gavin Robinson, a Democratic Unionist Party politician who represents Belfast East, described the latest incident as “medieval” and said it is likely to have “profound implications for community cohesion.” He called on the government to “recognize that uncontrolled immigration needs to end.”
“Community cohesion lies on the precipice,” the DUP’s Robinson said, adding that he and Northern Ireland police “share a concern that there could be violence.” Robinson called for the perpetrator of the attack to be deported.
Benn said the police probe and criminal justice system needed to be allowed to take their course, while adding: “any foreign national who abuses the hospitality of this country to commit crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.”
Henderson urged protesters not to repeat disorder seen in recent years in Northern Ireland.
“I understand that last night’s attempted murder will leave people feeling a range of emotions, from fear to anger,” he said. “Our officers have a role to facilitate and accommodate peaceful protest,” he said, before adding: “I appeal for calm and the safety of all of our communities in response to this.”
Photograph: Police attend the scene following a knife attack in Belfast on June 9, 2026; photo credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.
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