Circumstances unclear as Muslim leader says extremists must not be allowed to take advantage

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Three men and a police officer have been stabbed at a mosque in Birmingham.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands police said: "Police were called at 11pm on Saturday night to a mosque in Washwood Heath Road, Ward End, to reports of three men with stab wounds.

"Officers arrived at the incident and whilst the man was being detained, one police officer also suffered a stab wound.

"The three people and the officer have been taken to hospital, all are currently described as stable."

All three men and the officer were stabbed inside the mosque, the police spokeswoman confirmed. Officers were investigating whether the attack was a hate crime.

"We don't know at the moment, it's very early stages in the inquiry," the spokeswoman said. "We can't rule anything out at the moment."

Mohammed Shafiq, the leader of national Muslim organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "The Ramadhan Foundation expresses its deep concern at the stabbing of three people and a police officer in the Ward End mosque in Birmingham last night.

"Our immediate thoughts are with the victims injured and their families.

"It is too early to speculate on the circumstances of the stabbings but we must be clear there should be no place for this sort of violence in our country.

"There will obviously be people who will try to take advantage of this tragedy but we must not allow them to succeed."

A nearby resident reported hearing an argument coming from inside the mosque and believed it was a domestic incident between members, Shafiq said.

"I have spoken to someone who lives a few doors down from the mosque and they described hearing an argument between some of the people inside the mosque.

"It escalated into violence and a police officer has been stabbed.

"People, anti-Muslim extremists, are going to try to take advantage of this – it's very serious that a police officer has been stabbed during duty."