For almost 24 hours, fear and confusion gripped Leicester this week as thousands feared that a marauding knife attacker had cut a bloody swath through their city stabbing and possibly killing multiple victims.

What had actually been an isolated incident, a single fatal attack in the early evening on Tuesday, rapidly came to be widely held to have been a much bigger and more deadly attack.

In the popular imagination, it was held that Leicester had experienced a rampage akin to that which befell neighbouring university city Nottingham three years ago when three innocent people were killed and three others only narrowly survived.

Today the Daily Mail reveals what really happened on that rain-soaked evening this week – and discovers how a police blackout on information helped to fuel so much misinformation.

The first official report of any incident came when Leicestershire Constabulary issued a statement around 5.30pm on Tuesday to report a road closure outside the De Montfort University campus due to a ‘serious incident’ – without specifying what this might be.

Next came the intervention of Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and MP for Leicester West.

She tweeted that she was aware of the incident that had taken place on the uni campus and that her thoughts ‘were with those affected’ – again not specifying who or crucially how many this might be.

Soon social media, particularly X, was flooded with posts about what was happening.

Khaleed Oladipo, 20, a second-year student at De Montfort University in Leicester, was attacked just after 5pm on Tuesday evening

The De Montfort University student was found with knife wounds, just feet away from the university’s Journalism and Media department building

Photographs showed the dark and drizzly Leicester streets filled with police vehicles and flashing blue lights.

Rumours then began to swirl of multiple police cordons and crime scenes before a story emerged of multiple stabbings.

At least three people had been attacked, according to these recurring posts, with these claims often attributed to unnamed people who supposedly lived or worked nearby.

Worried parents with children studying at De Montfort who had been unable to reach their loved ones rang the university for news.

It was a city-wide panic.

But the truth – which was not definitively confirmed until 11.30am the following day, some 18 hours later – was much different to what was being so widely shared.

This had not been an attack like the one notoriously perpetrated by Valdo Calocane, who ran amok in Nottingham in June 2023, stabbing to death University of Nottingham students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as well as 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates.

And although no less tragic for those affected it was not a violent incident on the scale so many had believed.

Instead there was a single victim, 20-year-old Khaleed Oladipo, a second-year cybersecurity student at De Montfort University.

He had been making his way home to watch his team Arsenal take on Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final – a game they would win but which Khaleed would never get to watch.

As he approached the university’s Innovation Centre and student bar The Bowling Green, he became embroiled in an argument with another man in the street.

The row turned violent and just after 5pm, Mr Oladipo, a talented footballer from South London, collapsed to the floor after being stabbed in the chest.

A crowd, alerted by the commotion, gathered around him, some attempted CPR while others dialled 999 and took off their coats to cover him for warmth.

Campus security arrived with a defibrillator just before the first ambulance arrived.

Mr Oladipo was rushed to the Leicester Royal Infirmary less than half a mile away but he died shortly afterwards.

An 18-year-old man was later arrested on suspicion of murder and continues to be held in custody.

But the sheer number of police and medics called out to the violent attack seems to have deceived some living nearby into believing there was more than one crime scene.

And the size of the area that was then cordoned off – it included the usually busy Oxford Street, as well as Infirmary Road, Infirmary Square, Carlton Street, York Road, Lower Brown Street, the Gateway and Gosling Street – seemed to further suggest to some that this was much bigger than a single isolated incident.

And with those starting points, and a lack of any official police statement to clarify what , the vacuum was filled with wild rumours of a triple stabbing at various points across the city.

On X, one man wrote: ‘3 stabbed outside the job I’m on in Leicester 1 dead over road rage’

Another added: ‘Ive spoke (sic) to eyewitnesses in Leicester multiple stabbing and at least 1 dead.’

By 10am the next day Liz Kendall was still trying to hold the line, posting on her Facebook: ‘I am aware that a serious incident took place on De Montfort University Campus yesterday evening, and that a police cordon remains in place this morning.

‘There are no further details currently and I would urge everyone to refrain from speculating whilst investigations continue.’

But by now her constituents had been speculating wildly for hours.

Once it finally became apparent that there were no other stabbings there was an immediate backlash against the police for failing to clarify this earlier.

Leicestershire Police claimed that the long information blackout had been necessary as part of their ‘victim-first approach’ to enable officers to trace the victim’s family and inform them of the tragic events of that evening.

But X users criticised the police, with one writing: ‘People wouldn’t need to speculate if you actually released information, would they? The fact you’re not means that there is simply one conclusion we can all leap to…’

Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall arrives for the weekly Government cabinet meeting at Downing Street on January 27, 2026 in London

Another said: ‘Not telling us what happened is unhelpful, have you learned nothing? Knowing you lot it will turn out to be more than 3 people stabbed so technically you can call this post wrong.’

Local councillor Phil King said the delay in police getting the right information out had been ‘terribly unhelpful’ and had led to ‘idle speculation’.

He has now written to the city’s police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews asking for an explanation.

Mr King, Conservative councillor for the Harborough district, said: ‘Obviously this is a very tragic situation, my thoughts are with family and friends and this will be deeply concerning to all residents.

‘But why did this take Leicestershire Police approximately 18 hours to release any public information?’

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I have local residents who work there, students who study and there is a hospital next door. ‘Obviously they have to do their job and I understand all that and it is an awful tragedy.

‘But information is needed to stop idle speculation and all that which is terribly unhelpful and makes people wonder what is going on. I think it is very concerning. We all want reassurance. We pay a lot of taxes for the police service.’

Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, which includes the DMU campus, said he too had spoken to Leicestershire Police ‘about its communications around this incident’ and added: ‘When you have a vacuum it gets filled by rumours – I’m certain there will be learnings from the police on this.’

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Adam added: ‘My social media was on fire and it always is on fire when there’s an incident of this nature, because people like to speculate, people like to cause so much friction and trouble and politicise these incidents that it becomes a real issue.

‘But a further layer and element of this was that there are parents who possibly couldn’t get in touch with their children, only hearing that there has been somebody that’s been killed and that caused a lot of stress.’

As the truth of what had actually happened emerged, people living nearby also expressed concern about the delay.

Writing online Stuart Bint asked Ms Kendall for information after she issued a message saying she was ‘aware of a serious incident’.

Mr Bint, a retired author, said: ‘This is truly an horrific incident. But what’s to be gained by the complete secrecy from Leicestershire police?

‘Fear and speculation are rife in the area. Can you not urge the Chief Constable to make a holding statement, to calm things down?’

A Leicestershire police spokesman said: ‘The force understands that this incident has caused significant concern to those living in the surrounding area and the wider community.

‘Following the report being received, emergency services were deployed and a scene preservation was put in place to secure any evidence and allow the investigation to begin.

‘Notification of the road closures were publicised on the force’s social media channels.

‘During this period, enquiries were also undertaken to locate the deceased’s next of kin and allow time for specially-trained officers to notify them of what had happened. This is in line with the force’s victim-first approach to such incidents.

‘Information about the incident was publicised to the force’s website and social media channels once all necessary processes had been undertaken.’

On Thursday morning, Mr Oladipo’s family had the heartbreaking task of identifying him at Leicester Royal infirmary’s mortuary just a few streets away from where floral tributes had been laid close to the murder scene.

Relatives later released a cherished family photograph of Mr Oladipo and a statement thanking medics and members of the public who had tried to save his life as well as expressing their shock at why anyone would

want to harm him.

They said: ‘We cannot begin to put into words how sad we are to have lost Khaleed. He was an extremely loved son, brother, uncle, boyfriend and friend.

‘Khaleed was a good boy who loved his family. He was in his second year at university, and we were so proud of him.

‘One of his main passions was football and he had played since the age of four.

‘He was an Arsenal supporter and we believe he was on his way home to watch the game later that night when he was stabbed and killed.

‘We want to thank the members of the public who stopped to try and help Khaleed and the ambulance service and hospital staff who did all they could to try and save him.

‘We are also really grateful to the police for their efforts in the investigation so far to ensure the person responsible is brought to justice.

‘We are struggling to understand why anyone would do this. We know getting justice for Khaleed will not bring him back but we will make sure that he gets the justice he deserves.’

De Montford University vice-chancellor Katie Normington said the killing of Mr Oladipo was a ‘tragedy… deeply felt across our campus’.

She said: ‘A family has lost a beloved member and all our hearts go out to them. This tragedy is deeply felt across our campus and the city.

‘Khaleed was a member of our DMU community and we know this loss will be particularly difficult for those who knew him. We are directly supporting students who studied with

Khaleed, as well as all our students and staff who feel this loss.

‘As a university we create opportunities for people to achieve, and seeing that cut off so tragically is devastating for all of us.’

The investigation into Mr Oladipo’s death continues, with extensive enquiries being carried out by detectives from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Major Crime Team

A post-mortem examination has been carried out and found that he died as a result of a stab wound to the chest.