Less serious violence at Notting Hill Carnival this year, say police

This year's Notting Hill Carnival had "far fewer" incidents of serious violence than in recent years, the Metropolitan Police has said.

As of Monday evening, there had been 423 arrests over two days. There were two stabbings, but the Met said neither led to serious injury.

Last year, eight people were stabbed, leaving one person dead. Another person was killed in a separate attack.

Met Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said the use of live facial recognition, metal detectors and stop-and-search had "prevented some of the serious violence we have seen at previous carnivals".

There were 223 arrests on Monday, the day of the adult parade, and 200 on Sunday.

The most common was for cannabis possession (70), possession of an offensive weapon (46), and drug supply (44). The police recorded 18 sexual offences and five robberies.

The two stabbings took place in Powis Terrace and Oxford Gardens in Notting Hill.

Police said 52 of the arrests over the two days were the result of identifications using live facial recognition (LFR).

Mr Ward, the policing commander for the event, said the Met had "proactively targeted those who have attempted to come to Carnival to cause harm to others".

The Met's use of LFR technology has been controversial, with civil liberty and anti-racism groups calling on it to drop plans to use it at the carnival.

In a letter to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, 11 organisations described LFR as "a mass surveillance tool that treats all Carnival-goers as potential suspects and has no place at one of London's biggest cultural celebrations".

They also said the decision to reintroduce the technology at Carnival was "deeply disappointing" and argued it could be "less accurate for women and people of colour".

Previously, the Met has argued LFR is accurate and balanced across ethnicity and gender.

Last year, there were 334 arrests during the event, and two deaths. Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed in front of her three-year-old with a zombie knife when a fight between a group of men broke out in front of her.

Mussie Imnetu, 41, a chef who had worked under chefs including Gordon Ramsay, died in hospital days after being attacked in the street.

In 2023, there were eight stabbings and 308 arrests.