Seafront machete brawl must spark change, MP urges

The police spent several hours trying to bring the disorder under control on Tuesday

An MP said lessons must be learnt after men were seen fighting with machetes on a city's seafront.

Footage depicting the brawl in Southend-on-Sea, during which a man was stabbed, was "truly alarming", Bayo Alaba said.

Essex Police said eight people were arrested and seven weapons seized during the incident on Tuesday evening.

It mirrored similar scenes of disorder in August 2023 when a social media invite to "get lit" on the beach turned violent.

Mr Alaba, the recently elected Labour MP for Southend East & Rochford, said several people were "critically injured" after brawls on Marine Parade and High Street.

He warned there appeared to be a "pattern" of violence in the city during the warmer summer months.

"Definitely work needs to be done with the forces," the MP said.

"We need to find out what happened, who knows what and when - and what we can do about it.

"This time last year it happened as well, so this is a pattern now and because it is a pattern we have to look at it differently and see what we can do to mitigate against it."

The BBC understands the disorder on Tuesday night started after a "beach rave" was organised on social media.

A video appeared to show at least four people dressed in black and brandishing large knives near the Adventure Island theme park.

Essex Police Ch Supt Leighton Hammett described the violence as "regrettable", adding the force was "going to work really hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again".

"We had information passed but it certainly wasn’t information passed around drugs or weapons being brought in here," he told the BBC.

Mr Alaba said the scenes in Southend-on-Sea were "distressing" to witness

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said a man was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital after being stabbed at about 19:00 BST.

Police confirmed one person in hospital was under arrest and would be questioned when "medically fit enough".

Similar to last August, police were handed extra stop and search powers via a dispersal order.

The rules remained in place until 20:00 on Wednesday as officers continued to pursue a number of lines of inquiry.

The force said a "large and visible" police presence would remain in the city centre.

It thanked "the vast law-abiding majority of the public for their co-operation" and asked witnesses to come forward.

Patrick Green, of the anti-knife crime charity The Ben Kinsella Trust, has worked with young people to educate them on the dangers of carrying weapons.

"There are positive ways to keep yourself safe and carrying a knife is not the way to that," he said.

Mr Green described events in Southend as "a shocking incident".

He said the individuals involved needed to "feel the full force of the law".