A former policeman staying at the Glasgow bloodbath hotel has told how he rushed from his room to find two hotel workers fighting for life just minutes after the frenzied knife attack.
The former cop, who asked to be referred to as John, was sent to the Park Inn Hotel with his mother Nuren, 56, after he was forced to seek asylum from his home in Asia.
John, 27, decided against taking the lift from the third floor of the hotel because it was covered in blood on the walls and floor.
He left his mother just before 1pm to run down to find a receptionist holding his stomach and gasping for breath while sitting at the reception desk.
Another hotel worker lying on the stairs connecting the hotel to the pavement.
John also claims to have seen a policeman with blood pouring from a head or face wound being supported by a colleague.
He said: “I had been having a sleep and awoke hearing a terrible commotion on the street and I knew something very bad was happening.
“I looked out the window and I could hear a man and a woman screaming for help. They were terrified.
“I spoke to my mother and tried to find the courage to go down and see if I could help. I tried to get in the lift but when the door opened there was blood everywhere, on the walls, on the floor. I didn’t want to lock myself in there so I ran down the stairs.
“When I got to the bottom there was blood on the floor, lots of it and I was very afraid but my police training was starting to come back to me and I started telling people to calm down.
“I got to reception and I saw the usual guy there, a big Scottish guy in his thirties who is very helpful and who I know quite well from living here for the past three weeks. He had very obviously been stabbed in the abdomen and he had blood all over his hands and stomach. He wasn’t quite talking, mope gasping for breath.
“I asked if he was ok and he couldn’t answer. I knew the ambulance would be coming and he seemed stable. Other people were starting to arrive too. I ran outside to see what was happening and the other receptionist was there.
“He was lying on the stairs and not moving, covered in blood but still alive. It was obvious that he had been stabbed.”
John said he was unsure if the policeman had been stabbed, as his injuries seemed to be to the head or face.
He said: “It was his face that was bleeding and he did not seem to be as badly hurt as the receptionists. He was being helped by another policeman.”
John said he had been traumatised by what he witnessed.
He said: “I will have to take some time to calm down and think about things but I am shocked at what happened. I wish I could have done more to help but the terrible things had happened just a few minutes before I got there.
“I feel very bad for the hotel workers because they have both been kind and helpful with me in the time I have been here with my mother.”
Other hotel guests had been moved into the Park Hotel from private let accommodation but John and Nuria had been living in a hotel in London before being moved to Glasgow by Mears, the agency that provides accommodation for asylum seekers.
He said: “What I will say is that there is no social distancing going on in that hotel and some people are definitely stressed about it. They are seeing on TV that people are meant to be keeping themselves safe but they are then herded into a hotel where none of the Government’s rules are possible to follow.
Matthew Nesbitt, 29, watched the horror unfold from his fourth floor office as chaos erupted across from him on West George Street.
Matthew, from Belfast, said: “I could hear the screaming from the fourth floor, it was panicked and really desperate sounding.
“I could see a man lying on the pavement with his chest bare and there was an obviously massive wound on his torso. It was hard to look at.
“There was a lot of blood all over the pavement but the police officers who quickly turned up were truly heroic, fearless, and they just piled towards the danger. They don't know it was a knifeman or people with guns but they put their lives on the line.”
Office worker Craig Milroy, 22, from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, watched one man lying on the pavement with no shoes or shirt, being helped by another man who was trying to stem the flow of blood.
He said: “He looked like he was trying to compress the wound but the guy was in a bad way.
“I assumed that he had been stabbed as he was bleeding heavily from his side. But it could easily have been a bullet that did it. It was so chaotic it was difficult to work out.
“The police armed response officers were on the scene extremely quickly and officers started shouting at us to get back into our offices and stay there.
“At that point became aware that this could be the kind of terrible attack that would leave people dead. We were locked in for a while and I took it as a good sign that we were allowed out again.”
Tom Flanagan Karttunen, area senior vice president for the Radisson Hotel Group which owns the Park Inn said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic event that happened today on West George Street in Glasgow.
“We are working with the hotel owner and all the relevant local authorities, including Police Scotland, to support the investigation. Police Scotland has confirmed the incident has been contained and there is no further threat to the public.
“During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel has been occupied for temporary housing.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiXWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5cmVjb3JkLmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvc2NvdHRpc2gtbmV3cy9mb3JtZXItY29wLXN0YXlpbmctZ2xhc2dvdy1zdGFiYmluZy0yMjI1OTc3NtIBYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5cmVjb3JkLmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvc2NvdHRpc2gtbmV3cy9mb3JtZXItY29wLXN0YXlpbmctZ2xhc2dvdy1zdGFiYmluZy0yMjI1OTc3Ni5hbXA?oc=5
2020-06-26 20:11:49Z
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