Three people were killed in a shocking crime spree across the UK city of Nottingham early Tuesday — with the suspect mowing down three others in a white van just before he was busted, according to cops.

“This is an horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people,” Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable Kate Meynell said while announcing the arrest of a 31-year-old man, who has not been identified.

“We believe these three incidents are all linked,” the top cop said.

Meynell later said that detectives were “working alongside Counter Terrorism Policing,” while stressing that they are “keeping an open mind” to the possible motive.

Police were first called to a street where two people — later identified as students at the nearby University of Nottingham — were found dead just after 4 a.m.

One terrified witness recalled hearing “awful, blood-curdling screams” as the young students were stabbed.

“She was screaming ‘Help!’” the witness told the BBC of the murdered girl, who was “grappling” with the hooded, black-clad man.

“I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. It was repeated stabbing – four or five times,” the horrified onlooker said.

“The lad collapsed in the middle of the road. The girl stumbled towards a house and didn’t move,” the witness said.

“The attacker then just walked off … as calm as anything,” he said.

“It was a horrific thing to witness. I’m in bits here.”

While responding to that double murder, police then got calls that a white van had been driven into three people nearer the city center.

Lynn Haggitt said she saw the white van — driven by a dreadlocked man — pulling up near her at around 5:30 a.m., around 90 minutes after the first attack.

“There was a police car behind it, coming up slowly, no flashing lights,” she told Channel 4 News, saying that “the man in the driver’s seat looked in his mirror and saw the police car” tailing him.

“The white van then quickened up to the corner of the street and went into two people,” she said.

“He went straight into them. He just went bang, straight into them,” she said.

“The man went up in the air … It was such a bang – I wish I never saw it – it’s really shaken me up,” she also told the BBC.

The knocked-down woman “seemed OK,” but the man was left with “a whopping great head wound,” she said. “But amazingly enough he got up.”

Police said three people were injured in that incident. All are being treated in a hospital, cops said, without elaborating on the extent of their injuries.

A third man was later found dead in a separate location, police said, without elaborating on how he was killed.

Soon after the van ran over the trio of people, a local resident, university student Kane Brady, shot video of a man being pinned to the ground outside a white Vauxhall van with a shattered window.

 Brady told GB News he was woken by “what sounded like gunshots.”

“We ran to the window and there was armed police running out of what looked like an undercover car,” he said.

“When they opened the van, I saw a large knife being pulled out. … Whoever was in the van was then tasered and dragged out by them and then arrested,” said Brady, recalling seeing the suspect “resist.”

“We didn’t see any gunshots, but that’s what it sounded like, and the glass is all smashed in the van,” he said.

Meynell, the top cop, asked locals “to be patient” while it was fully investigated.

“This investigation is at its early stages and a team of detectives is working to establish exactly what has happened,” the chief constable said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “being kept updated on developments.”

“The police must be given the time to undertake their work,” he tweeted.

“My thoughts are with those injured, and the family and loved ones of those who have lost their lives.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman also said she was “receiving regular updates.”

“I am shocked & saddened that three people have lost their lives today in Nottingham. My thoughts are with those affected by this incident,” she tweeted.