London’s Notting Hill carnival turned deadly on Monday when a 21-year-old man was stabbed to death after more than 200 arrests during the annual Caribbean festival.
The event, which took place from August 27 to 29, attracts hundreds of thousands of participants to the streets of England’s capital and features live music, performances and entertainment.
Carnival returned this year for the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic, but this year’s spectacle was marred by death, sexual assault and hundreds of arrests.
When the carnival last took place in 2019, it saw over a million guests in attendance. This year’s extravaganza had a smaller turnout.
London’s Metropolitan Police made 209 arrests, including eight for sexual assault, 36 for drug possession, 33 for weapons possession and 27 public order offences.
Another 35 arrests were labeled “other” by police, including 10 more for possession of psychoactive substances, seven arrests for drink driving, five for criminal damage and one each for theft and robbery.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that a 21-year-old carnival-goer was stabbed to death at 8pm on Monday in the streets of the upscale neighborhood made famous by Hugh Grant’s 1999 rom-com Notting Hill. Julia Roberts.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but, “despite the best efforts of medical staff, he was pronounced dead,” police said.
The annual carnival has been taking place in the streets of Notting Hill since 1966 and served as a way to show solidarity and strength within London’s growing Caribbean communities.
This year’s event saw a host of new DJs perform, including Brown Sugar, Candy Love and Kay Wavey.
After a chaotic weekend and hundreds of arrests, Alison Heydari, the local police commander, said an investigation led by homicide detectives from the Met’s Special Crime Squad was underway.
“Officers from across the Met have been working tirelessly over the last two days to ensure that everyone who came to Notting Hill Carnival could enjoy the experience safely,” she said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, on Monday evening we saw a series of violent incidents and a 21-year-old man lost his life.”
The Met’s Specialist Crime Command will “pursue every possible line of inquiry to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,” Heydari said.
“There were hundreds of people in the vicinity when this incident occurred.”
Elsewhere during the three-day event, a police horse collapsed and died while on duty on Sunday.
The Metropolitan Police honored one of its most experienced and “friendly” horses, Police Horse Sandown, a 14-year-old brindle chestnut.
“Officers provided emergency care but the horse sadly died at the scene,” police said.
The horse has checked out “all sorts of events” across London since joining the police force in 2015.
