LONDON: British police were hunting Wednesday for a man believed to be armed with a crossbow after three women were killed in a house just northwest of London. The BBC said the women killed were the family of its main radio racing commentator John Hunt.
Hertfordshire Police said Kyle Clifford, 26, was being sought over the suspected triple murder, which potentially involved a crossbow and other weapons.
“The manhunt also involves armed police officers and specialist search teams responding at pace in the wake of what has been an horrific incident,” Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson said.
Police said the three women — ages 25, 28 and 61 — were found seriously injured in a house in Bushey, northwest of London, on Tuesday evening. Police and ambulance crews tried to save them, but they were pronounced dead at the scene.
BBC Radio 5 Live, the corporation’s main news and sports radio channel, said the victims were Carol Hunt, wife of its commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters.
John Hunt is BBC radio’s main horse racing commentator, his voice known to millions through his coverage of the world famous Grand National and The Derby. British media say that he found the bodies early Tuesday evening after returning home from reporting at Lingfield Park racecourse, which is just south of London.
As part of a note sent to BBC staff, the broadcaster described the incident as “utterly devastating” and that it will provide Hunt “with all the support we can.”
Police did not say whether Clifford, who is from London, was connected to the women, but British media reported that he was an ex-boyfriend of one of the daughters.
Local councillor Laurence Brass, who lives nearby, said the area is “a typical leafy British suburb.”
“At about eight o’clock last night, I was watching the football on television, and suddenly a helicopter landed in the lawn outside my flat, which is at the top of this road, and then my phone started going, and I was told that there was a major incident here in Bushey and we should all keep away because there was somebody apparently on the run,” he told the BBC.
Addressing the suspect directly, Simpson said: “Kyle, if you are seeing or hearing this, please make contact with the police.”
Britain’s new home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said she is being kept “fully informed” about the “truly shocking” incident.
People in Britain do not need a license to own a crossbow, but it is illegal to carry one in public without a reasonable excuse.
UK police are searching for a man after wife, daughters of BBC commentator killed
https://arab.news/48pjp
UK police are searching for a man after wife, daughters of BBC commentator killed
- Kyle Clifford is believed to be responsible for the deaths of radio racing commentator John Hunt's wife and two daughters
- Motive for the murders remains unknown, but British media reported that Clifford was an ex-boyfriend of one of the daughters
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
