Five people were stabbed during the two-day Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival, and a 32-year-old woman suffered “life-threatening” injuries, according to the Metropolitan police.
“There were five stabbing incidents, two incidents where the victim suffered cut injuries and one incident involving a caustic substance.”
“The injuries of both those stabbed are life-threatening. A 32-year-old woman who was stabbed on Sunday is also in a life-threatening condition,” police said.
London Underground police said in a statement that as of 10:45 pm local time on Monday, more than 230 people had been arrested, including 37 on suspicion of assaulting emergency workers, 49 on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons, and eight on suspicion of sexual offences. Security officers also confiscated hundreds of firearms during the festival. Thirty-five police officers were reportedly injured during the festival.
The annual Afro-Caribbean celebration took place in the streets of Notting Hill, west London, and attracted a reported 1 million visitors, with 7,000 police officers deployed to ensure security at the event, which began on Sunday and continued into the next day.
Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian activist, laid the foundations of the event when she organized the Caribbean Carnival at St. Pancras Town Hall in London in 1959. The event was a response to the racial tensions and riots that were occurring at the time.
Participants in this year's carnival, particularly those on the second day, stressed that Jones' message of unity was even more relevant in the wake of racist violence in late July after misinformation spread online about a suspect in a knife attack that claimed the lives of three girls in Southport, northwest England.
Matthew Phillips, chief executive of Notting Hill Carnival, told Reuters the event was Britain's biggest celebration of inclusion, “not focusing on differences but on commonalities”.
