This is a list of mass stabbings that took place in the 2020s. It includes incidents in which there were at least three casualties (killed or injured).
2020
Streatham, United Kingdom
Romans-sur-Isère, France
In late morning on 4 April 2020, a knife attack occurred in Romans-sur-Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France, resulting in the death of two people and the wounding of five others. The attacker, Abdallah Ahmed-Osman, a 33-year old Sudanese refugee, was charged with terrorist crimes.
The attacker entered a tobacco shop, where he stabbed the two owners and a customer, wounding them; he went on to a butcher's shop, where he stole a knife and killed a customer. He then killed another man, the owner of a local theatre who died shielding his twelve-year-old son, and then wounded two people waiting in line outside a bakery.
The suspect was a 33-year-old Sudanese man who had obtained refugee status and a 10-year visa in 2017. According to Arabic-speaking witnesses, he shouted "Allah Akbar" when he launched his attack and, at the time of his arrest, kneeled down and recited the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith. A terrorism investigation was launched. Searches at his home revealed handwritten notes complaining about living in a "country of disbelievers". On 8 April, he was indicted for "assassinations and attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist group". The attack occurred during the national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France.
Knoxville, Tennessee
Reading, United Kingdom
Glasgow, United Kingdom
At approximately 12:50 pm on 26 June 2020, a man stabbed six people in the Park Inn Hotel, West George Street in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. The attacker was cornered in an upstairs room of the hotel where he was shot dead by a police officer. Earlier, a police officer had responded to the initial call for emergency services to attend the scene and was injured shortly after arriving at the hotel. Armed response units were then called to the scene, before evacuating all staff members and asylum seekers to safety before attempting to apprehend the attacker.
The attacker stabbed and injured six people, including a police officer and hotel staff. The 42-year-old male police officer confronted the attacker and suffered serious injuries to his neck, abdomen, and leg. He later recovered and left the hospital. A 17-year-old boy from Sierra Leone was stabbed in his abdomen after a struggle with the attacker. The other injured men are two asylum seekers and two hotel staff members, aged 18, 20, 38, and 53; all were admitted into hospital. One was in critical condition.
At the time of the attack, the Park Inn Hotel had been closed to all potential guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was instead being used by Mears Group to accommodate asylum seekers. A spokeswoman for the campaign group Positive Action In Housing said the hotel was housing asylum seekers for the Mears Group, a housing and social care provider; 100 asylum seekers were said to have been residing there.
The attacker, Badreddin Abadlla Adam, was a 28-year-old male asylum seeker from Sudan who had arrived in the UK six months earlier. He went on a rampage after numerous reports had been made to the relevant authorities by charities and other asylum seekers residing in Park Inn Hotel, who were concerned about his deteriorating mental health, and the potential risk he posed to himself and others.
Police Scotland announced that the stabbing was not being treated as a terrorist incident. Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson said, "As would be the case in any police discharge of firearms involving a fatality, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has instructed the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner to investigate." Detectives are investigating whether the attacker was in any way inspired by the mass stabbing attack in Reading six days prior.
Manchester, United Kingdom
On 26 July 2020, 4 people were stabbed in Moss Side in Manchester, England. 17-year-old Mohamoud Mohamed died at the scene. The incident was the result of a gangland feud between Rusholme Crips and Moss Side's AO, or, 'Active Only'. Both gangs are believed to have grown out of Manchester's notorious Gooch and Doddington outfits. The attack happened a month after a mass shooting in the same area that killed two people.