Four men have been stabbed during a fight at east London music festival Garage, police have confirmed.

Confirmation came as police relayed the information that two people needed to be airlifted to hospital, while one of the men, a 26-year-old, looks to have suffered life-changing injuries.

The second man, a 22-year-old, has suffered non-life-threatening injuries and a third went to an east London hospital with a less serious stab wound and has since been discharged. The fourth stab victim was treated at the scene by paramedics.

Police believe the melee took place in the festival’s VIP section as the Met were called at 19:35 to the scene in Hainault Forest Country Park on Saturday. The police also confirmed that other people escaped through the entrance with what they described as “stab and slash” wounds.

A spokesman from Garage Nation’s promoters said: “We run a strict four-stage policy search regime. The security was procured and agreed in line with the planning that has been ongoing for 12 months.”

One Eyewitness, Mel Dee, describes how she saw one of the victims being attacked across the back when speaking to the BBC:“We saw him go towards someone in quite an aggressive manner. Then he jolted back,” she said.

“They’d slit his back, slashed him. It was very deep, he was fuming.”

“All of a sudden he’d ran towards whoever else it was and soon there were 15 of them. Other knives were pulled out,” The 21-year-old added.

“I could see people punching – arms flying everywhere.”

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