Notting Hill Carnival: Man stabbed and arrests made by Met Police

Ahead of this year’s carnival, the Met described it as a fixture in London’s cultural calendar that was also a “challenging event to police with very dense crowds and a regrettable history of a minority of people using it as an opportunity to commit crime, including violence”.

Commander Charmain Brenyah, the Met’s spokesperson for this year’s event, said as she had grown up not far from where carnival takes place, she had “happy memories of the music, costumes, floats and fantastic atmosphere”.

“Sadly, however, we know that for a minority of people, carnival is an opportunity to commit crime or to seek out violent confrontation,” she said.

“As a police officer on duty in previous years I’ve seen both the carnival I experienced in my youth, but also the other side of the same event when, later in the day, the atmosphere changes in some parts, with floats and costumes giving way to serious violence.”