Hazardous area response team seals off roads around venue in Hackney with hundreds of partygoers evacuated

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

At least 12 people have suffered burns after a man sprayed acid during a fight in a London nightclub packed with hundreds of bank holiday revellers.

Two victims in their 20s are in a serious but stable condition after the attack, the Metropolitan police said. The others were treated for minor injuries.



“Officers believe a dispute between two groups of people developed inside the venue, resulting in a noxious substance being sprayed by a male suspect directly at [two victims],” the Met said. “Other people inside the venue suffered the effects of the substance.”

The incident at the Mangle E8 nightclub near London Fields in east London early on Monday prompted the evacuation of the venue, where about 600 people had been at an event. About 200 had left the premises before emergency services arrived, with a further 400 then evacuated.

Video footage of the incident seen by the Press Association showed the venue’s corridors filled with clubbers wrapped in medical blankets while fire officers filed past.

Many of the people were sitting on blankets which had been laid on the concrete floor, and outside the road was packed with ambulances. At one stage a girl could be seen sitting at the foot of a stairwell, her head buried in her hands.

A witness told the Press Association: “In the party in the basement there were girls making noise, I saw their friends ordering a bottle of water. They were putting it on them, they were splashing it on their faces.



“It was like a war. The police were everywhere. I just saw a lot of people complaining, there were a lot of staff around, someone had called the police and a lot of people were crying.”

The fire brigade, police, ambulances and a hazardous area response team were sent to the venue and closed surrounding roads. One tenant at a block of flats overlooking the nightclub described a scene of confusion as crowds were moved up the street.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “It happened so fast, they rushed people out, I thought it was a stabbing because all I heard was ‘move, move, move - move out of the area’.

“The area was closed off and police vans were there. The security were telling the crowd to go down that way. People on this side were waiting to go home but they couldn’t go home because the road was closed.”



A Met spokesman said: “Police were called to a licensed premises in Sidworth Street, Dalston, at approximately 1.10am on 17 April, after members of the public complained of a noxious substance. London fire brigade and London ambulance service were called to the scene.

“A total of 12 people attended hospital suffering burns. Ten people were taken by ambulance and two people presented themselves at an east London hospital.”

Those two are believed to be sisters from Australia, Australian media reported. Isobella Fraser, 22, told the Nine Network she and her sister Prue, 20, took themselves to hospital because ambulances were taking too long.

Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) #BREAKING: An Australian model and her sister are among 12 people injured in a suspected acid attack in a London nightclub. #9News pic.twitter.com/eNF9xsHA6i

“Everyone was crying, it was horrific,” Prue, who suffered a burn to her arm, told the Seven Network on Tuesday. Her sister said her shirt stuck to her skin when the substance hit her.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Isobella said. “I thought we were getting gassed, I thought it was a terrorist attack.”

They were thankful their injuries were not more serious and said others were badly hurt when the substance hit them in the face.

The Met said the substance was yet to be identified. A fire brigade spokeswoman said: “The only information that we have is that it was an unknown corrosive substance thrown within the nightclub. It was identified by a pH paper test as a strong acidic substance.”

One witness to the incident, Phie McKenzie, tweeted:

Phie McKenzie (@PhieMcKenzie) Scary scenes in Hackney tonight, we have heard reports of chemical burns of people in the building here pic.twitter.com/ZLpRGlKd15

Mangle E8, a 720-capacity nightclub that occupies the site of a former industrial laundry, had been hosting the Lovejuice warehouse party, which was set to run between 6pm on Sunday and 3am on Monday.



Phone calls to love4clubbing, the company promoting the event, went unanswered on Monday morning. A tweet sent by the promoters suggested the event had been sold out.

No arrests have been made and police are investigating the incident, which they said had no indications of being gang related.