Why is what’s happening in Leicester secret?

[GrandmaMazur]

I just saw a news alert about a very serious incident that happened last night in Leicester and the area is cordoned off with a heavy police presence. But there are no details available.

I don’t remember seeing a news story like this before where nothing about the actual incident is reported. Does this happen regularly and I’ve not noticed or is this quite unusual?

I hope it’s nothing too awful.

He was suspended. I’ve already said because he was uploading screenshots of messages regarding the matter on social media.

You said...

One security man got in trouble for revealing the truth.

But the truth was that the incident was a parking dispute. So if this security guard was suspended for posting things on social falsely claiming it was a terrorist attack, that wasn't the truth, was it?

I find it hard to believe armed police would have a man pinned to the floor over a parking dispute.

A firearms unit was deployed because the police received a report that the occupants of one car were in possession of a firearm. So yes, they would absolutely have put them on the ground until they either recovered it, or established that there wasn't one. All five occupants of one car were arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.

Agree with previous posters, this smacks of OP being desparate for this to have perpetuated by an illegal immigrant.

What have I said that gives you that impression?

I found it very unusual to see a news alert for a news article that reported a major incident which had happened on the previous day but for which there were yet no details.

I had not been aware of seeing similar news stories in the past so I asked whether this is unusual or whether it happens commonly and I hadn’t noticed. Some posters have given possible reasons which make sense.

Because journalists have to wait for things to be confirmed before publishing. They can't just speculate.

Yes, of the 'they're hiding it because it was an immigrant' type of post.

That's better news but still ta nightmare for that family, obviously.

Hopefully those who have seen fit to try to turn this family's tragedy into a political argument will have the balls and brains to feel shame if the perp turns out to be the overwhelming usual suspect - IE a white male!

They will feel no shame because they have no shame.

They will simply go silent on this particular incident and eagerly await the next one, in the hope that the next incident will prove to be better fodder for their campaign of hate.

I found it strange because we have people stabbed to death, regularly, on Merseyside and we have this going on. Two army explosions and human remains, yet no major news coverage. It's interesting what the TV News picks up on.
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/police-give-update-what-white-33353724

Excuse the interruption…

Across the BBC, SKY News and GMB programmes this morning, they all had ticker banners describing ‘Breaking News’. Serious Incident at DMT Uni. but gave no further details.

It’s natural to be inquisitive.

But you can hardly blame somebody for wanting further info.

The news on the BBC may have been from the local broadcast but in the London area, they didn’t give any details.

Someone has died. Updates of course will be available once the Police release the details.

Sadly, because it’s a fairly regular occurrence in the London area, no ticker/banner is usually displayed. It might not even be the 2nd item on the news broadcast ☹️

It seemed to me like they just got there super-quick, before there were any details to report.
"Something has happened, not sure what, can't tell you anything."
I heard it on the radio. It was bad reporting imho.

Yes, it seemed like bad reporting to me too which I suppose is why I came here to ask the question.

It is interesting/sad that not all stabbings/incidents are reported on the national news. There was a young lad murdered near here recently and I didn’t see anything on the national news about the poor boy.

Feel shame? I highly doubt it. Have you seen the comments on the (white family mental health poor businessman) ex-army lovely guy by all accounts who ran over almost 100 people?! If it was a poc the comments would be totally different! Talk about making excuses for him! He ran over 4 children one in a buggy! How sick do you have to be to drive over people not just once but continue. He literally could have just stopped and turned his car off instead he chose to tailgate an ambulance and then proceed to drive into the crowd not into the area where there was a tiny bit of space but on videos it looks like he actually turned the wheel into the crowd more than once. Now unless it was some remote controlled car! I can't understand how anyone could keep going after hitting the first person.

The comments on any news stories about him show exactly how sick some people are. Plus the huge silence once they realise he's actually a "lovely family guy"!

The Guardian is reporting that the victim and perpetrator were involved in an altercation before the stabbing - but the investigation is continuing

Initial inquiries carried out by officers suggested the victim had been involved in an altercation with another man in the street, who left the scene before police arrived.
The senior investigating officer, DI Lorna Granville, said: “We are currently piecing together exactly what has occurred on the corner of Oxford Street and Bonners Lane between, what is reported as, two men involved in a confrontation.
“CCTV in the area is currently being reviewed and officers are speaking to potential witnesses to assist with our investigation. We know a lot of people came to the aid of the victim before emergency services arrived and we want to thank them for their help.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/04/police-investigating-serious-incident-de-montfort-university-leicester

Yes, there was a thread on MN where a woman defended him vociferously, it was so strange to see.

There is a big difference between wondering what has happened/wanting more info and leaping to the conclusion that the information is deliberately being kept secret/starting a thread to speculate on why this might be.

I used ‘prurient’ recently and afterward discovered it refers to an unhealthy sexual interest vs general unhealthy interest!

I was a bit surprised to be accused of that!

The attack was reported both on the Beeb and in the Times early this morning.

Why do you need all the gory details, potentially before even identification and news shared with the families? What are you hoping for apart from prurient glee and something to speculate about on social media?

In general waiting a few hours for factually accurate info is more useful, even if less exciting than idle speculation or trouble making.

I don’t want gory details, I am not a ghoul or even a sexual pervert (again with the prurient!).

I found it odd that the news was announcing an incident without actually saying anything about it. It would make much more sense to me not to have a breaking news story at all and to report on it later when the police were able to tell journalists what had happened.

Perhaps I worded the thread title clumsily by using the word secret but I really was surprised by the style of reporting.

I’m also quite surprised by all the motives people have assumed about me from my question.

Local social media was teeming last night with eye witness accounts of this incident but the lack of police statements I agree has been odd. It was obvious form the huge cordon of one of the main routes into the city causing travel chaos that something very serious had happened. Staff at the nearby hospital could not get to work, A& E restricted, hospital workers could not get to their nightshifts. I think there is possibly a lot more to this than we are being told. Thoughts are with the deceased person's family. there have been three serious incidents of violence in this area in the past ten days or so including another student I think being the victim of a knife robbery and two men in Castle gardens being attacked with a metal pole. Very worrying. the city centre is a very scary place to go as I'm sure are many other city centres.

I wouldn't have commented if it wasn't true and I hadn't seen it. I have in front of me, on my phone, "Murder arrest after student stabbed near campus." It was posted at 7.15 GMT. Obviously more information has been added as it became available (student's death, ages etc) but that was the original headline. There was nothing suspicious about the reporting, nothing was withheld for any longer than usual. The fact is that you somehow missed the information that was available and which was available for several hours before you posted.

Prurient is also often used for inappropriate demands for information with no purpose.

You were complaining about insufficient information to satisfy your curiosity. Now its been pointed out that reports were available early this morning (that I saw, no idea about earlier than that) you are changing your position to be “well there were not enough details”.

As for motive - really? You can’t imagine why conspiracy theorising about information being kept secret when its already been on the news (with regular updates) doesn’t arouse questions of motive?

You know what you saw and when so I might be wrong but when I looked I could only see stories with the words serious incident in the headline.

'parking lot'

Don't you mean... 'car park'?

Prurient interest? No.