Tory MP David Amess is murdered: Tragedy as married father-of-five, 69, is stabbed to death by knifeman who stormed into his constituency surgery in Southend Methodist church in front of horrified onlookers as armed police arrest suspect, 25, at scene.
Sir David, 69, had been holding a surgery for constituents when he was attacked by the knifeman. Horrified onlookers saw the stabbing happen as he was inside Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood. Sir David was said to have been treated at the scene by medics but later died, Essex Police said
Man, 25, was arrested at the scene and a knife was seized. The suspect is in custody and arrested over murder.
Conservative MP Sir David Amess has today been murdered after being stabbed ‘multiple times’ during his weekly surgery by a 25-year-old man who ran in and knifed him to death.
The Tory MP for Southend West, 69, was holding a surgery at the Belfairs Methodist Church, in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, when his attacker ran into the building wielding a knife before attacking the veteran politician.
Paramedics working to save him on the floor of a Essex church for more than an hour but he could not be saved after appalling attack with chilling similarities to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in June 2016.
Horrified constituents waiting to see the veteran MP, an ardent Brexiteer and royalist, watched in horror as the knifeman stabbed him, calling the police at around Midday. Police confirmed Sir David’s death at around 3pm.
One woman ran out of the church in the chaos yelling down the phone after dialling 999, telling the call handler: ‘Someone’s been stabbed, please get here soon, he’s not breathing’. Essex Police held the attacker at the scene and seized a weapon. He is now in custody and arrested on suspicion of murder.
Sir David, a Brexiteer veteran MP who has voted against gay marriage and abortion, was seen laughing and speaking to people on the steps of the church just minutes before he was knifed.
Lee Jordison walked around to the church from Hicks butchers where he works after seeing emergency services, including armed police and an air ambulance, rushing to the scene.
‘We could see a police cordon set up… (someone outside) told me a woman had come out screaming on the phone, saying ‘someone’s been stabbed, please get here soon, he’s not breathing’,’ the 40-year-old told PA.
‘There was a lot of talk at the church that it was (Sir David) and plenty of people had seen him outside saying hello to people outside the church 20 minutes before. It’s very shocking… I’ve worked up here and lived up here all my life and never seen anything like this – it’s terrible news.’
Councillor John Lamb, who was at the scene where Conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed, described him as an ‘amicable’ family man.
He said he got the call about the ‘dreadful’ attack just after midday and rushed to the Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, but that the surrounding roads had already been cordoned off by police.
Mr Lamb said the MP had not been taken to hospital, but that there were two ambulances at the scene and ‘they’ve been working on him all that time here’. He’s a family man, he’s got four daughters and a son,’ he told the PA news agency.
‘He’s always trying to help people and especially refugees he’s tried to help. He’s a very amicable person and he does stick by his guns, he says what he believes and he sticks by it.’
Judith Cannon, deputy chair of the local Conservative club and friend of the MP, said: ‘I just don’t believe it, how anyone could harm a kind man like David, I don’t know. I cannot understand how anyone could be so wicked to harm this man’.
Armed police swamped the Belfairs Methodist Church as the MP was being treated for his wounds on the floor inside. Tragically he couldn’t be saved.