The total number of arrests made during this year’s Notting Hill Carnival have increased. With more than 370 arrests recorded by police, a stabbing on Monday evening ended the annual August bank holiday celebration.
The exact figure, 373, is an increase from the 313 made last Carnival weekend.
The majority of arrests, 156 people, were made on drug offences. This is followed by 69 people detained on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and nine on suspicion of sexual offences.
Items confiscated by police included knives, a metal pole and a Taser.
The carnival saw one million people attend over the bank holiday weekend. Approximately 7,000 officers from the Met Police’s new Violent Crime Task Force were on duty Monday evening to target “the threat of violent crime”. The event was enforced by the “highest number of officers in six years”. Roughly 13,000 officers were deployed across the carnival weekend.
The celebration came to a close with the stabbing of a man at approximately 8.10pm in Ladbrooke Grove.
In addition to the stabbing, Scotland Yard has confirmed 30 police officers injured “in the line of duty”.
Dave Musker, Notting Hill Carnival Gold Commander, has spoken on the stabbing: “Monday night was marred by the news of a non-life-threatening stabbing at around 8.10pm in Ladbroke Grove. Thankfully this was the only incident of this nature throughout the whole weekend.”
In spite of this, he is pleased with the overall running of the event. He has added: “I am very pleased with the results of the screening arches and the Section 60 order; 36 offensive weapons were taken off the streets by my officers and 373 arrests were made over the course of the weekend, which we expect could rise.”
Scotland Yard imposed a Section 60 order across the carnival zone spanning from 9am to 11.59pm. This permitted police to search carnival goers if they believed that they were carrying offensive weapons.
