YOUTH STILL QUIZZED ON STAB ATTACKS
A teenager is still being questioned by detectives in connection with three unprovoked attacks on women in a three-week period.
The assaults, in which the women were stabbed - two of them in the chest -happened as the victims were walking alone in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
A 17-year-old arrested on Sunday on suspicion of the three attacks is in custody and Hampshire Police have until 1.40am tomorrow to question him.
A 30-year-old man from Waterlooville, who was arrested on Friday, was released without charge yesterday.
A Hampshire Police spokesman said: "After extensive inquiries, Hampshire Constabulary is satisfied that this man was not responsible for any of the three assaults in Portsmouth."
The first attack took place at 10.40pm on Friday June 20, when a 20-year-old woman was approached from behind and assaulted while walking along Southampton Road in Portsmouth.
She suffered a chest injury, which was serious but not life-threatening.
In the second incident, a 45-year-old woman was approached by a man along the shoreline of Ports Creek in Hilsea on Sunday June 29. She also suffered a stab wound to her chest.
The man ran off towards Hilsea Lines.
Police were called to the third incident shortly after 1pm last Friday to a report of an assault by a man on a woman who was walking in an alleyway between Colwell Road and Northern Road in Cosham.
The woman was treated for her injury at hospital and was released later the same day.
