AT LEAST six people, including two children, have died in a knife attack at a flat in St Helier, Jersey.
The identities and ages of the deceased have yet to be confirmed.
A 30-year-old man was in police custody at Jersey General Hospital where he is also recovering from surgery following the incident at about 3pm in a residential area close to the town centre.
Jersey police said that officers were called to a flat at Victoria Crescent, Upper Midvale Road, St Helier, after 3pm following reports of a multiple stabbing.
The area around where the incident occurred was sealed off while a major incident room was set up at police headquarters in St Helier.
A witness at the scene, Andre Thorpe, said he believed all the victims were members of the same family, and that two ambulances arrived at the scene,.
“Then four or five police vehicles came. They were trying to access a private house in the crescent. It was an old Victorian terrace, a lot of them are split into flats.
“I saw police come running out with a child, it was a small child, I just saw the legs. They went off in an ambulance. When the paramedic came back her shirt was covered in blood,” he said.
He added that the area where the violent incident happened was quite secluded and not on a main road.
Mr Thorpe said he believed all the victims were members of the same family. Police said the victims were Jersey residents. Some neighbours said they believed the family was Polish.
The head of the crime services Stewart Gull, who led the inquiry into the killings of five Ipswich prostitutes in 2006, admitted he was shaken by the Jersey incident and that it had been “pretty traumatic” for emergency services staff called to the scene.
“Dealing with multiple deaths of men, women and particularly young children, it has shaken the force but the officers who initially responded were tremendously professional,” he said.
“Clearly this complex investigation is in its very early stages as we try to establish exactly what happened.
“ We are appealing to anyone who may have any information to contact us.
“We are mindful, too, of the impact of any such serious and tragic incident on the local community, and we have police officers in the area to support the investigation and local people,” he said.
A number of witnesses have come forward and are being interviewed by police as officers make efforts to identify the victims.
Forensic officers are at the scene, together with a number of uniformed officers and detectives.
Violent crime is rare on Jersey, a British island dependency about 20km off the west coast of France's Normandy peninsula. – (AP/ Guardianservice)