PSNI officers were last night trying to determine why a young man attacked and stabbed four men in the village of Caledon in Co Tyrone yesterday.
The four men were being treated in hospital last night. One man was in a critical condition, another in a serious condition, while the remaining two men were in a serious but stable condition.
A man in his early 20s was arrested at the scene and was being questioned by detectives last night about what appeared to be a random, motiveless attack. A 10in kitchen knife was also recovered.
The attacks started shortly before 11am yesterday when the man walked into the Mace shop on Main Street. He stabbed a man there before running from the shop. Three men in the vicinity were also stabbed. One of the injured men is local while the three others were tradesmen working in the village.
Eyewitnesses described how one of the men tried to defend himself with a spade. One woman said that the assailant was "roaring and shouting" and appeared to be out of control.
Eyewitness Letitia Millar told the BBC that she became aware of a disturbance when she heard shouting near her home. "I could see a man coming backwards down the street wielding a spade - following him, roaring and shouting, was a young man with a very large knife," she said.
"He chased him round a tree, then eventually came back up the street again . . . He looked as though he was totally and completely out of it," she said.
The men were treated at the scene by local doctors before being taken to Craigavon Area Hospital.
PSNI chief inspector Tom Sinclair said before he was arrested the man "was walking about with his blood-stained knife in his hand". Mr Sinclair said police were trying to establish a motive for the attack.
"We were shocked to be called to this crime involving violence. It is scary for the people involved and it was scary for the police officers," he added.
Sinn Féin Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew said the community was in a state of shock after the attacks.