A map shows the police cordon in Nottingham city centre following the major incident.

Road closures in place on Tuesday morning included Ilkeston Road, Milton Street, Maples Street and Woodborough Road, from the junction with Magdala Road into the city.

The tram network was also disrupted with all services suspended on the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) as the police investigation continued.

Armed police appear to have added a new 100-metre cordon and rushed to a property on Ilkeston Road.

Max Williams, a student at the University of Nottingham, was outside Tesco when he heard the commotion and filmed the armed police entering a property.

He told The Independent: “We were walking down and police cars passed us and at least a dozen of them went inside.”

Armed officers, some wearing balaclavas, could be seen on Ilkeston Road, a few hundred yards above the main cordon.

Police appeared to enter a commercial property on the street, with two young women eventually put in the back of a marked car.

A number of unmarked police vehicles carrying armed officers eventually then left after the section of the road was cordoned off.

Witness Frances told Sky News she has lived in Nottingham for more than 20 years and had just got off the bus on her way to work when she saw the van hit the man and woman near Theatre Royal in the city centre.

Frances, whose surname was not given, said: “I just got off the bus with around 40 other people and we were walking along Market Square to catch our next bus, crossed over the road at Theatre Royal and got around 10 feet down the road when all of a sudden you heard a bang which sounded like a vehicle hitting a bollard.

“I turned around and then saw the two people on the floor, on the road.

“Someone was screaming, I think a gentleman ran over to help as well.”

She said the woman “was in pain from the impact from hitting the ground. She had hit her head but was still able to speak.

“Then the gentleman as well took the full brunt of the van and he had head injuries but was still awake.

“He didn’t lose consciousness, he was still awake at that stage.”

Frances added: “Then it just went from there, the police were there straight away, then the ambulance arrived and they got the two people in the ambulance and got them sent off to whichever hospital.”

Three people have been found dead in Nottingham in what police described as a “horrific and tragic incident”.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after two bodies were discovered in a city centre street in the early hours of Tuesday. A third man was found dead in another location, Nottinghamshire Police said.

A further three people are in hospital after someone tried to run them over in a van, in what police believe was a connected incident.

Sam Rkaina reports on everything we know about the tragic incident so far:

The Leader of Nottingham City Council has condemned the “dreadful violence”.

Labour’s Councillor David Mellen said: “I am shocked and saddened by these horrific deaths. My thoughts and prayers are with those who knew and loved the three people who have died and those who have been injured, and to the communities where they lived.

“Ours is an overwhelmingly peaceful and tolerant city where people get along with one another and it’s incomprehensible that such dreadful violence has happened here. I’m grateful to the police for swiftly making an arrest and for all the emergency services responding to this tragic situation and keeping us safe.”

Lynn Haggitt told BBC News she was feeling “shaky” after describing what she saw near the Theatre Royal in Nottingham this morning.

She described how a white van pulled up beside her at 5.30am on her way to work: “He looked in his mirror, saw a police car behind him, he then quickened up, there were two people, two in the corner, he went straight into these two people.”

“The woman went on the kerb, the man went up in the air, there was such a bang, I wish I never saw it, it’s really shaken me up.

“I went over, perhaps I shouldn’t have gone over but I wanted to see if I could help.

“He (the van driver) backed up after he hit… and drove up Parliament Street.

“The woman was sitting up on the kerb, she looked OK. The man was laying down, but then he got up, sat on the side waiting for an ambulance,” Ms Haggitt said, adding “I can’t believe he was able to get up after the head wound”.