Divers in hunt for lost Xmas day reveller
Wall of silence from partygoers over knife attack on man in street
MISSING Godfrey Mukondo A PARTYGOER who disappeared early on Christmas Day may have fallen into water beside the seafront bar where he was drinking, police fear.
Godfrey Mukondo, 41, was last seen leaving the CoCo Bar and Lounge at around 4.30am.
Worried family and friends called police when he failed to return home in Southampton, Hants.
Divers from Hampshire police’s specialist marine unit yesterday searched the waters in Southampton’s Town Quay area, near the bar.
Mr Mukondo’s brother Charles Rossi said: “Anyone with information or who has heard something please come forward so we can find my brother.”
Police said: “We are very concerned for his welfare.” with multiple stab wounds. Officers recovered two knives from close to the scene of the attack.
Supt Mark Lawrence, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “Whilst it is unusual for so many people to be arrested in the early stages of an investigation such as this, due to a lack of co-operation and the necessity of securing essential evidence following a serious assault, this action was appropriate.”
One witness said: “I had a feeling something wasn’t right, and then the kids kept running backwards and forwards screaming, ‘Get him, get him’.
“Then I saw a knife there – it was shining. The person that did the stabbing, I heard him say, ‘Come on then’.
“I could hear others saying, ‘Leave them, leave them’ and ‘F**k him’, and a girl’s voice say, ‘No, don’t’. That man was on his own, maybe waiting for a bus.
“There was no way the man was part of the same group. He was of a different age bracket and there is no way he kept that kind of company.”
Another witness said: “They all rushed into that house – there were more than 30 school kids and their voices were so young. I saw a guy on the floor and he had been stabbed right in the centre of his chest.”
Neighbour Mason El Hage, 22, said he saw around 50 police officers interrogate the group of youths in the street. He said: “I have never seen something like that in my life. It was very extreme in terms of the amount of people involved.” Mr El Hage, a graphic designer, heard noise and dogs barking at around 1.30am.
He said: “After that, three riot vans rocked up and about 50 police officers marched down the road, went into the house next door and brought around 30 to 40 people outside. “They lined them up and interrogated them for about an hour.” He added that the group were arrested in “single file” in a “very, very swift operation”. A witness to the stabbing