Author: Darren Smith

A cyclist has died in hospital days after being deliberately struck by a car in Norwich, with the driver now facing the prospect of a murder charge after the victim succumbed to his injuries. The man, in his 50s, suffered serious head injuries when he was hit by a white Mercedes CLA 180 Sport on Chartwell Road just after 5pm on Friday 8 March. Norfolk Police confirmed on Monday that he had died in hospital, describing the incident as a cyclist being “deliberately hit” by the vehicle. David Morgan, 40, had already appeared before Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged…

Polish police have arrested four Swedish citizens who allegedly robbed a Norwegian tourist at knifepoint in the heart of Gdańsk’s historic centre, detaining all four at the city’s airport as they prepared to board a flight home to Sweden — in a swift operation that has drawn widespread attention across Europe. The robbery took place on Stągiewna Street on 7 May, when the four suspects allegedly pressed a knife to the victim’s chest and demanded his mobile phone, bank card and PIN code. The group then used the stolen card to withdraw several thousand Norwegian kroner from ATMs and make…

A Turkish taxi driver has been hailed as a hero after he wrestled a loaded shotgun from a hostage-taker in his back seat — bringing an 80-kilometre police chase through the streets of Gaziantep to a dramatic end by grabbing the weapon with his bare hands and throwing it out of the car. Dashcam footage of the extraordinary confrontation, which took place on 10 May, shows driver Ramazan Yildirim, 58, leaping into the back seat as armed suspect Semih C., 31, pointed his rifle at officers who had surrounded the vehicle. The pair wrestle for nearly a minute before a…

Three balaclava-clad raiders armed with metal poles stormed a Bradford jewellery shop in a chaotic mid-morning ram-raid yesterday — only to flee empty-handed after failing to break through the store’s jewellery cases, as terrified customers including a woman with a baby scrambled to escape around them. The attempted robbery at Bradford Jewellers on Barkerend Road lasted just 30 seconds. At around 11.30am on 11 May, the gang used a vehicle to ram the shop front before piling inside through the destroyed entrance as smoke billowed from the building and alarms wailed. The impact left rubble, shattered glass and the vehicle’s…

Andy Burnham’s hopes of returning to Westminster to mount a leadership bid suffered a significant setback on Tuesday after the MP whose constituency had been mooted as a potential route back into parliament flatly refused to stand aside — and backed Sir Keir Starmer to remain in office. Marie Rimmer, who has represented St Helens South and Whiston since 2015, said she had no intention of giving up her seat for anyone and dismissed speculation that Burnham had been in contact with her about it. “I’m not planning to stand down for anybody,” she told the Guardian. “I was selected…

The man believed to be responsible for organising a significant proportion of illegal Channel crossings in recent years has been identified as a 28-year-old Iraqi Kurd who charges migrants up to £15,000 a crossing and has evaded arrest for years by operating under false identities, a BBC investigation has revealed. Kardo Jaf, who uses the alias Ranya — taken from the town of Ranya in Iraqi Kurdistan where he is believed to originate — runs a smuggling network with routes stretching from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom. Despite keeping his true identity carefully concealed, he has openly advertised his services…

Archaeologists believe they have solved one of biblical history’s most enduring mysteries, announcing that a site on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee is almost certainly the lost town of Bethsaida — where the Gospels record Jesus healing a blind man and where several of his closest disciples were born. Excavation director Steven Notley told an audience in Washington DC on 5 May that the accumulated evidence from years of digging at El-Araj has “essentially confirmed” its identity as the ancient settlement, ending decades of uncertainty that has divided archaeologists and biblical scholars alike. The case rests on…

A Brazilian rodeo rider was stamped to death by a bull in front of his horrified wife — just one month after their wedding — in footage that has gone viral after being livestreamed to thousands of online viewers. Rafael Silvio Oliveira, 32 and a father of two, was competing at the Votu International Rodeo in São Paulo, Brazil, when the fatal accident occurred on Sunday night. Footage shows him clinging desperately to the back of a raging bull before being violently bucked through the air and hurled headfirst toward the ground. The animal then stamps directly onto his torso.…

Ukrainian police and state officials have forcibly removed monks, clergy and worshippers from the St Michael’s Monastery in Pereyaslav, dragging the abbot from the church doors as officers pushed through crowds of faithful to hand the 18th-century site to state control — images that have shocked Orthodox communities worldwide and reignited debate about religious freedom in wartime Ukraine. Video footage of the incident, which took place on Sunday 11 May and was widely shared across X and Orthodox media channels including the Union of Orthodox Journalists, shows officers in tactical gear forcing their way through a crowd at the monastery…

A British-Nigerian father jailed for abducting his five-year-old son likely escaped to Spain in the three days it took prison staff to inform the Metropolitan Police that they had mistakenly released him — a delay a High Court judge has condemned as showing “an alarming lack of urgency” and a failure of the state. Ifedayo Adeyeye, 58, was wrongly released from HMP Pentonville in London on 21 April, just one day after being sentenced to a further 12 months for contempt of court — on top of an earlier six-month sentence — over his abduction of five-year-old Laurys N’Djosse Adeyeye…