Two people injured at a seaside machete battle were among those arrested over the disorder on Tuesday night at an English seaside town.
A “beach rave” turned into a running street battle in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, on Tuesday night as groups battled it out with long blades, described as machetes — the jungle bush-cutting tool — along the seafront. Police say they made eight arrests and recovered seven weapons after instituting a dispersal area along the promenade. The order gave officers the power to stop and search any person or vehicle in the area without cause for suspicion to search for weapons, and to order people to disperse or face arrest.
Several people were “critically injured” and two of those hospitalised are among the eight arrested.
This is not the first time Southend, a popular holiday retreat for the county of Essex, has seen such violence and locals have questioned why a foreseeable event had caught the police wrong-footed, even though the local senior officer insisted his force had responded “quickly and robustly”. A local businessman told the BBC the local community knew trouble was coming because it had been widely discussed on social media ahead of time, but the police appear to have been unprepared somehow.
Local Member of Parliament Bayo Alaba did not criticise the police except, apparently, by tacit admission. He told the broadcaster: “we need to find out what happened, who knew what and when. And what we can do about it. The response was good once the police knew about it”.
He said, further: “This time last year it happened as well, this is a pattern now and because it is a pattern we have to look at it differently and see what we can do to mitigate it.”
Footage widely shared on social media of the incident shows security officers keeping their distance while the knifemen had at each other, and stampedes of pedestrians fleeing the violence.
Acting Inspector Stephen Wells said: “Members of the public have the right to use this public space without the fear of being harassed or distressed.” The police said in an update on the incident made on Wednesday afternoon that: “Last night a group of people travelled from outside Southend into our city, intent on committing crime and disorder… My officers responded quickly and robustly…. making eight arrests and seizing a number of weapons.”
The disorder at Southend is distinct from that at the near-homophone Southport, another English seaside town on the other side of the country which saw major unrest, also on Tuesday night, over the slaying of several young girls by a knifeman.
