A 29-year-old man clings to life after being stabbed on Warfield Road after 9 pm on Monday, while a 19-year-old is in stable condition after a stabbing incident on Ladbroke Grove earlier that evening.
Six additional men suffered non-life-threatening injuries in separate stabbing occurrences on Monday. Throughout the festival’s primary two days, 275 arrests were made, with more than half transpiring on Monday. Offenses encompassed possession of offensive weapons, sexual assault, assaults on police, and drug possession.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, responsible for overseeing the policing operation, lamented, “For the second consecutive year, Monday night at the carnival has been tainted by severe violence. While we acknowledge carnival’s cultural significance in London’s calendar, we cannot ignore the stabbings, sexual assaults, and attacks on police officers that occurred. Following this major operation, we will scrutinize the past two days’ events and contemplate necessary changes for the years ahead.”
An estimated two million individuals graced the streets of west London during the carnival. Notably, this year’s Europe’s largest street celebration commemorated the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush’s docking at Tilbury—a vessel that brought Caribbean workers to the UK for post-Second World War reconstruction efforts.
