Briefsfromshittu

Friday, May 20, 2016

Four Women Stabbed Near Sainsbury's Car Park

A woman has been airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a knife attack near a supermarket in west London.

Three other women were stabbed during the attack in the car park of a branch of Sainsbury's in Hampton, and a man in his 60s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police and paramedics were called to the store on The Avenue at 10:35am this morning and when officers arrived they found three women at the location with non-serious knife wounds.

A fourth woman found at a property nearby was taken to hospital by air ambulance with life-threatening injuries.

A police spokesman said a Taser was deployed during the suspect's arrest but it was not discharged.

"Officers attended and discovered three women suffering from knife wounds," the spokesman said.

"The London Ambulance Service also attended and are providing treatment to the women. Their conditions are not thought to be life-threatening or changing at this time.

"A fourth woman who had also suffered knife wounds was subsequently located at a nearby property. She has been taken to hospital where her condition at this stage is thought to be life-threatening."

A woman working at a nearby pub said the attack appeared to be unprovoked

"He only went for the women," she said. "The man ran through and started attacking them. It didn't seem like they knew him; it was completely unprovoked.

"If it had been 10 or 20 minutes earlier there would have been children there because it's right outside a primary school.

"He was caught very quickly just outside the car park. He appeared to be out of it, on drugs or crazy.

"The woman who was badly stabbed in the back made it up to the police station and raised the alarm. She is well-known locally and always goes shopping there all the time."

A member of staff at Tangley Park Children's Centre, which backs onto the scene, said: "We kept all the children safe and kept them in the building until we knew it was safe.

"It's just such a shock - our parents and children could have been walking to their cars at that time.

"Our sympathies go out to everyone who was hurt and we are really glad none of our families were involved."

The incident is not thought to be terror related.

Ladbrokes And Coral May Have To Sell 400 Shops

The competition regulator says Ladbrokes and Gala Coral may need to sell up to 400 betting shops if their merger is to be cleared.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the provisional findings of its probe into the proposed £2.3bn tie-up had identified "concerns in a large number of local areas".

The bookmakers have 4,004 stores between them across the UK and a merger would create the largest high street chain.

The CMA said its working group "identified 659 local areas where it provisionally found that the merger may be expected to result in a substantial loss of competition, which could lead to a worsening of the offer made to customers at both a local and national level".

It added that its only concerns on the deal were over physical stores.

Martin Cave, who is chairing the CMA's inquiry, said: "We’ve provisionally found that the merger between two of the largest bookmakers in the country may be expected to reduce competition and choice for customers in a large number of local areas.

"Although online betting has grown substantially in recent years, the evidence we’ve seen confirms that a large number of customers still choose to bet in shops - and many would continue to do so after the merger.

"For these customers, competition comes from the choice of shops in their local area and it’s they who could lose out from any reduction of competition and choice.

"Discounts and offers of free bets to individual customers are ways betting shops respond to local competition which could be threatened by the merger.

"We’re also concerned that such a widespread potential reduction in competition at the local level could worsen those elements that are set nationally such as odds and betting limits."

The CMA said it was now seeking responses to its provisional findings before coming to a final decision by 19 August - a date it extended by eight weeks because of the scale of the proposed remedies.

The regulator added that stores sales would need to be substantially completed before the merger could go ahead.

Ladbrokes said: "We believe this represents a significant step in the merger process.

"Our focus now will continue to be to work with the CMA to progress the merger to focus on finding a suitable buyer or buyers in order to deliver the necessary remedies".

The company's share price surged ahead when the markets opened for business on Friday - up 12% in early trading of the loss-making company's stock.

It took Ladbrokes shares to their highest level in two months.

Gala Coral had planned to list on the stock market before agreeing to the merger with its rival.