Parking row sparks 'nine-person brawl with knife'

The parking dispute involved someone with a knife, according to reports

Police are investigating reports of a "nine-person brawl" following a parking dispute.

News of the fight emerged when Cambridgeshire Police published a log of 999 calls its control room received between 16:00 and 21:00 BST on Friday.

It happened in Peterborough just before 18:30 that day, with one caller reporting seeing someone with a knife.

Police indicated they suspected affray and said an investigation was under way.

'Dancing on a motorway'

During the five-hour 999 "postathon", call handlers received 227 calls.

One of them said an ex-partner was "outside their house with petrol cans", while another reported a man "dancing" on a motorway.

In another batch of calls, police said one was about someone's Amazon parcel going missing, while another reported that someone had put children's toys and cushions in the top of their bin.

Twenty calls were silent, with five believed to be "pocket" calls.

In response to several of Friday's calls, police said:

• The man "dancing" on a motorway had been "taken to safety" by officers.

• An investigation was "ongoing" into the report of an ex-partner with petrol cans. Police said a "suspect" had left the area and the "victim" was "spoken to by officers".

• A report of a "deliberate fire" at Peterborough prison was "under investigation".

• The man concerned about his missing Amazon parcel had been "advised to call 101" - a non-emergency number.

Supt Nick Church: said: "We often hear about officers on the front line, but rarely do we hear about the hard work and resilience of our control room staff, who are on hand 24 hours a day to help the public whenever they need police assistance.

"This 'postathon' was important to raise awareness of the volume of calls we receive, but also to demonstrate the variety and complexity of some of the incidents we deal with too."