Man arrested after six Poles die in Jersey island stabbing

Aug 15, 2011, 13:59 GMT

London - Police on the British Channel island of Jersey are questioning a 30-year-old Polish man in connection with the fatal stabbing of six people, including his own wife, two children and father-in-law, local media report said Monday.

Police said that in addition to the four people belonging to one family, a woman and a child from another family had also been killed in the frenzied attack in a flat in St Helier, the capital of Jersey, Sunday.

The suspect, who underwent emergency surgery for knife injuries, remained under police guard at Jersey's General Hospital.

Earlier Monday, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that all the victims were of Polish origin, and that the suspect was also Polish.

Police superintendent Stewart Gull said the motive for Sunday's attack was not known and it would be 'pure speculation' to attempt a guess at this juncture. He described the investigations as 'complex.'

Police said four of the victims were found in the flat, and two in the street. Local reports said the incident took place on the last day of a three-day Polish festival in St Helier, the island's capital.

Some 4,000 Poles have settled on Jersey, the main island in the group of Channel Islands between Britain and France, over the past 10 years, a local church leader said.

'The whole island will be in shock and pain as a result of this,' said Jersey's Home Affairs minister, Ian Le Marquand, Monday.

Local reports said the children who were killed, wearing their Sunday best, were aged between two and nine years old.

A local witness who saw the bodies of two little girls being carried out of the flat, said: 'I've never seen so much blood. They were completely limp. The paramedics were crying.'

Prayers were being said in the island's churches for the victims Monday, led by British and Polish Roman Catholic priests. A vigil was held for the victims.

According to the Press Association, members of the Polish community named the suspect as Damian Rzeszowski.

At a mass in a Catholic church, a family friend named Rzeszowski's wife as Izabela Rzeszowski, the Press Association said.