RESIDENTS who say their seaside city is being ruined by hordes of teenagers operating wild have revealed they reside in concern of stabbings and acid assaults.
A brawl broke out on Southend seafront at 4pm on Tuesday as terrified beachgoers seemed on.
8
8
8
Witnesses mentioned the seaside, beforehand branded as the “worst place on Earth”, was like a “battle zone” with teenagers wearing “black masks” and “balaclavas”.
One teenage lady was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency employee and a public order offence. She was launched beneath investigation.
Within the final 12 months there have been 4,294 violence and sexual offences in Southend Central.
Police knowledge additionally revealed 1,211 instances of anti-social behaviour, whereas public offences accounted for 9.7% of all crimes within the space between July 2022 and June 2023.
Proprietor of De Olde Chippe James Nichols mentioned: “There are hordes of people who come down. All youngsters. All of them collect and it’s totally intimidating for the households that come down.
“The minority begin to battle and as soon as the police get entangled it is recreation over from there. The canines flip up. The police have to make use of sources like pepper spray. We do lose prospects over it.
“It usually occurs when the solar comes out. It was organized for the Wednesday on social media, however they modified it as a result of the climate wasn’t nice yesterday.
“Everyone knows it will occur. We are able to even inform you what time. For some purpose the police do not appear in a position to deal with it. There’s one other one organized for the top of the month on TikTok.”
“You have bought hundreds of them operating up and down the seafront,” the 43-year-old, from Tilbury, continued. “There was an acid assault. A younger child bought acid thrown in his face. I’ve bought members of workers that not need to work right here.
“Final yr there have been a number of stabbings on the seafront which was gang warfare. We had a man we introduced into the store that we needed to carry out emergency first support on till paramedics turned up.
“We could not open the subsequent day as a result of this space was a criminal offense scene. There have been 4 or 5 acid assaults that we’re conscious of.”
Road upkeep employee Perry Christie, 60, from Stepney Inexperienced, mentioned: “It was about 3.30pm. I used to be doing the bins after which impulsively after I seemed up there have been a great deal of folks on the beachfront.
8
8
8
“A whole lot of them have been type of youngsters. They will need to have been coming down on trains. There have been increasingly more and it seemed like hundreds to me.
“Each time the police would search somebody, they’d simply need to get their telephones out and run to it. We have been informed to go house early and simply maintain out of it.
“I requested considered one of them what was taking place they usually mentioned ‘a giant social gathering’. I requested ‘am I invited?’.”
Lucy Pack, 18, a primary aider with South Essex Property Providers (SEPS), mentioned: “There was an enormous group of children on the seaside. The police arrived to close it down and all of it went loopy.
“There have been children operating and police operating after them. Folks have been getting arrested. I needed to shut the door. It was a bit bit scary often because I work alone. I felt fairly susceptible.
“I heard that individuals have been planning on throwing acid. I went on the seaside and a liquid flew within the air. There have been folks clutching their legs.
“Folks have been screaming and holding onto their physique elements. They seemed in ache. We did not count on it to turn out to be violent.”
Dan Black, 33, foreshore inspector with Southend Metropolis Council, mentioned: “There have been these waterguns. They have been saying there was acid within the waterguns. There have been additionally baseball bats.
“It was all deliberate on TikTok. I believe it was referred to as Southend Motive. It was meant to be a seaside social gathering.
“Final summer season there have been stabbings. That was undoubtedly extra gang associated. I’ve labored on the seafront for years and I see it yearly actually.
“You get the gangs that come down for the day and trigger a little bit of bother.”
Paul Thompson, proprietor of Pebbles One, mentioned: “A whole lot of 14 or 15-year-old children are interacting with the police. I believe a dispersal order had been put in place however they weren’t going.
“There have been scuffles with the police. It is typically a seaside household resort. Sadly sometimes these teams of individuals from London go on TikTok and prepare to come back down right here and trigger bother. I would really like the police to be extra sturdy with them to be honest.”
Pebbles One employee Francesca Thompson, 16, mentioned: “This sort of factor occurs once they get placed on social media. Just like the final time there have been GCSEs it occurred right here.
“There was additionally an identical factor in Chalkwell. Somebody will begin phrase of it and inform everybody to go right down to Southend. This yr it is occurred twice.
“While you get to the summer season, there are many people who are available from different areas and the seaside will get so packed. That is often when folks chuck stuff on the seaside.”
One lady, who needed to stay nameless, mentioned: “I’ve heard that a number of the east London gangs come down on the prepare after which they’ve a little bit of a brawl or battle with a number of the gangs right here.
“We solely come right here within the day. I would not come at evening.”
Essex Police mentioned they’d not obtained any studies of acid assaults.
Chief Superintendent Waheed Khan, South Native Police Space Commander, mentioned: “We’re acutely conscious that this incident may have brought about concern among the many public, each those that witnessed it immediately and those that might have seen photos and movies circulating on social media.
“Incidents corresponding to this are very uncommon in Southend, and it’s precisely why we’ve got Operation Union in place, so we are able to reply rapidly to incidents as they occur, as we did on this case.
“Those that may have seen the footage may have seen a sturdy policing response to a difficult scenario.
“It is very important be aware though officers have been coping with a big group of individuals, there have been no studies of significant incident or critical accidents.
“One teenage lady was arrested, and she or he has been launched beneath investigation.
“We’re, in fact, conscious incidents corresponding to this can have an effect on companies and the significance of the summer season months to them.
“I can guarantee them there’ll proceed to be an acceptable policing presence within the metropolis right now [Wednesday] and within the coming days.”
8
8
