Police were called to Stratford Centre, opposite
Westfield, just before 20:00 BST, following an "altercation" between
two groups of males where a noxious substance was thrown.
Ambulance crews treated six males at the scene
for their injuries, and three of them were taken to hospital.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion
of grievous bodily harm.
Those reported injured were believed to be in a
number of different locations, sparking initial fears that people had been
sprayed at random.
However the Met Police said those injured
were connected to the initial attack.
Ch Supt Ade Adelekan said: "I would like to
be very clear concerning this incident.
"What initially may have been perceived as a
number of random attacks has, on closer inspection, been found to be one
incident involving two groups of males."
No-one suffered life-threatening or
life-changing injuries.
Witnesses at the scene said an argument had
broken out among a group of people.
A man who gave his name as Hossen, an assistant
manager at Burger King, said a victim had run into the fast food chain to
"wash acid off his face".
The 28-year-old added: "There were cuts
around his eyes and he was trying to chuck water into them."
Tahseen Taj lives in one of the buildings just
opposite the shopping centre and was disturbed by the noise.
"I could hear a lot of ambulances and police
from around 20:45, but also there's a West Ham match today; I thought it must
be a football brawl," she said.
"But after some time it just increased and
increased, and there were a lot of fire brigades and ambulances and police, and
it was quite chaotic to be honest.
"I was quite worried."
No comments:
Post a Comment