#Glasgow stabbing suspect identified as Sudanese asylum seeker

Enlarge Image

Police near the scene of the stabbing in Glasgow, Scotland today.
AFP via Getty Images

A man shot dead by police after he went on a stabbing spree at a Glasgow hotel on Friday was identified as a disgruntled Sudanese asylum seeker in his 20s who told friends he would carry out the attacks the night before.

“He said ‘I will attack’ so everyone should take it seriously,” said a man identified only as Siraj in an interview with Scotland’s ITV. “I told him, ‘no, there’s no need to attack’ and he said ‘they hate me, I hate them, they are against me.’”

Siraj said he reported the threats from the man to the Park Inn Hotel’s reception on Thursday and was interviewed by the housing manager hours before the attacks occurred the next day. The hotel houses asylum seekers from around the world.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Siraj, 22, an asylum seeker from Yemen, said the man, known as Badradeen, was “fed up” and had been in his hotel room for three months.

“There was no daylight in his room and he was very angry,” Siraj said.

Six people injured in the attack were hospitalized, including a 42-year-old police officer who was one of the first to arrive on the scene.

Police said the incident was not being treated as terrorism.