Two people taken to hospital and seven more arrested after a mass brawl in south-east London

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Two people were taken to hospital and seven arrested after a mass brawl broke out between schoolchildren.



The Metropolitan police said officers were called to “a large fight” between youngsters in Northumberland Heath in Bexley, south-east London, at about 5.40pm on Monday.

Some reports on social media suggested up to 100 youths were involved, some wearing school uniform, near the Duchess of Kent pub. Unverified footage appeared to show some youths armed with sticks.

Jeanne Asquith wrote on Facebook: “Never seen anything like it and I’ve lived here eight years ... I just hope the schools deal with those involved. Most were wearing school uniform!”

A resident who did not want to be named said she was shocked to see children in school uniform involved in the fracas.

“This is the first time for a long, long while that we’ve had gang-related problems round here,” she added.

“They were all youngsters, a lot of them were in school uniform – that was the shock, seeing them in the uniforms. They’re still youngsters – it’s quite a shock when they’re all en masse like that, I didn’t want to go outside.”

She said the police were on the scene quickly and the group started shouting abuse at the officers.

“We don’t know what it was over or why it even began – it’s crazy,” she added.

Yamborghini (@Shane_Newman1) My lovely home town of Northumberland Heath pic.twitter.com/BiWYb55ExJ

A police spokesman said seven people were arrested and were taken to south London police stations.

He added: “Officers from the borough and the Met’s territorial support group were called to the scene. Two individuals suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They were taken to a south London hospital by London ambulance service to be treated for their injuries.”

On Tuesday a number of police officers were seen on the corner of Northumberland Heath, where the fight spilled out from the park on Monday.

Quiet had descended on the area but residents were heard discussing the brawl as they walked by.

Bonnie Lampard, 23, witnessed much of the brawl from the Duchess of Kent pub where she works.

“About 50 boys came running out the park, and they all had something like knives or bars,” she said. “A lot of them had balaclavas on.”

Lampard said the fight appeared to be between a group of predominantly white boys and another group of mainly black boys. Although they were wearing school uniform, they were not in blazers so it was hard to determine from which school they came.

Lampard said some boys discarded weapons in nearby residents’ bins and a file was thrown over the fence into the beer garden.

“After the police came the boys went but about half an hour later, some of them came back and it was getting heated again. We took one of the boys inside the pub and had to bolt the door.”

Lampard said there were a lot of police but they were still outnumbered by the boys. “I heard it was because of another fight that happened over the weekend,” she said.

