Ex-psychiatric patient charged in store attacks Customers flee as knifeman lashes out

centre store.

A man, wielding two knives, had lashed out at terrified Christmas

shoppers and staff as he ran amok in the crowded Rackhams store in

Birmingham yesterday.

West Midlands Police last night said Mr David Cedric Morgan would

appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court this morning.

It is understood that six years ago he spent up to three months in the

All Saints Psychiatric Hospital in Aston, Birmingham.

Armed with a 12-inch butcher's boning knife and a bread knife, a man

slashed and cut at random as screaming customers tried to flee.

Fifteen people, nine employees and six shoppers, were knifed and left

with horrific gashes to their faces and throats on two floors of the

showpiece store.

The bloodshed came to an end only when the man was brought to the

ground by security staff and police.

Three of the most seriously injured victims, two employees and a

customer, had emergency surgery at Birmingham's General hospital, only a

few hundred yards from the store. Their injuries were not believed to be

life threatening.

Five other people were treated for shock as the hospital dealt with

hundreds of calls from anxious relatives.

The incident began as Christmas shoppers packed the store in

Corporation Street. Without warning, a man took two large knives from

his jacket pocket and started shouting and screaming at shop assistants.

Witnesses told how a young woman assistant on the perfume counter on

the ground floor was the first to be injured, when the 6ft tall attacker

slashed her after lunging at her from behind.

Ms Husna Chilwan, 36, who was shopping with her mother, said: ''The

man was very calm and didn't say a word when he walked into the shop.

''I saw him grab at a woman and she screamed out and then he cut her.

She looked like she was going to faint. She was covered in blood and

then she fell to the ground. The man stayed totally calm and stood there

playing with his knife.

''It was pandemonium because everyone in the store was screaming and

panicking.''

Ms Clare Dallaway, 21, who was promoting the National Lottery in the

shopping centre, said: ''It was awful. This man was just wildly slashing

at the women's throats with a knife. He just suddenly went crazy.''

Customer Tony Parker said he saw a terrified shop assistant with a

breadknife held to her throat: ''She was screaming 'keep away from me,

keep away from me'. Her throat had been cut. The man then grabbed

another woman and slashed her throat as well. I could not believe what

was happening.''

One woman was cut 1cm from arteries in her neck. Mr Garth Titley, a

registrar in plastic surgery at Birmingham General, said he had carried

out a 45-minute operation.

Another woman suffered a gash which ran the length of her neck. Mr

Titley said: ''It will leave scar lines but we hope it will be possible

to cover them with make-up. We were very lucky that nothing more serious

happened as a result of this incident.''

Passer-by Lorna Yarnell said all the store's entrances were blocked by

police wearing bullet-proof vests.

''There were loud shrieks and screams coming from the shoppers inside.

''I saw two elderly women with their heads and coats covered in blood

being brought out by ambulancemen. I couldn't bear to watch any more.''

Mr Jonathan Haynes, who was working in a branch of Principles near

Rackhams, said: ''I saw a lot of customers and staff coming out and

there was a lot of blood.

''Some people had been slashed across the throat. A few were on

stretchers and some were just walking along holding their throats, which

had been split open. It was bad.''

Police recovered both knives. A man was carried from the store covered

by a blanket.

Detective Chief Superintendent David Baker said that a man ''just went

berserk in what appeared to be a random attack. We don't know what the

motive was. It was an isolated incident, completely out of the

ordinary.''