Notting Hill Carnival: Police arrest 373 people
ENGLAND A man was stabbed as crowds dispersed from the second day of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London on Monday night. The victim suffered nonlife threatening injuries after he was attacked at 8.10 pm on Ladbroke Grove.
Over the weekend a total of 373 people were arrested and 36 offensive weapons were seized as police rolled out the use of ‘knife arches’ at the event for the first time in its history to clamp down on the amount of weapons being sneaked in.
Brazen festivalgoers were pictured openly taking drugs in front of officers as they partied in the streets of west London for the second day in a row. The Met Police said officers on Sunday detained 42 people on drugs offences, 20 on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and seven on public order offences. A further two people were arrested on suspicion of sexual offences, three for common assault and 12 on suspicion of possessing psychoactive drugs.
But the number of arrests make up a tiny minority, with the event expected to attract more than two million revelers in total to its floats, food stalls and music over the course of the weekend.
Police are operating with enhanced stop and search powers in a bid to crack down on violence.
Scotland Yard also imposed a Section 60 order across the carnival’s geographical area between 9am and 11.59pm on Monday. The order allows officers to search people if they believe they may be carrying offensive weapons or in anticipation of violence.
Notting Hill Carnival Gold Commander Dave Musker said: “On Sunday, my officers along with colleagues from the British Transport Police arrested 133 individuals for a range of offences and 20 weapons were seized, including knives.”
Almost 7,000 officers, some from the Metropolitan Police’s newly formed Violent Crime Task Force, were deployed on Monday to ‘combat the threat of violent crime’. This is up from the 6,100 onduty officers at the less busy family day on Sunday.
(Daily Mail)