The Van region had avoided the earlier stages of the Hamidian massacres in 1895. However, by January 1896 there was increasing violence - a report by the British vice-consul in Van, W. H. Williams, said the many Armenian villages had been looted and "Armenians are everywhere in a state bordering on panic, afraid lest the spring will bring still further disasters". The Ottoman authorities eventually sent an expedition to attack the Armenian population of Van in June 1896.