The headteacher of a school where a gang of youths crashed a birthday party and stabbed two teenagers has spoken out for the first time following the terrifying attack.
Victoria Morris, the head of Elm Park Primary School in Havering, east London, told of her ‘shock’ after a group of more than 50 youths armed with knives and machetes gatecrashed the ‘private’ 16th birthday celebration.
Terrifying footage from the incident shows members of the ‘stab-gang’ brandishing knives as well as teenagers running for their lives and police officers fending off the large crowd with pepper spray as they scrambled to bring the disorder to a close.
Police swooped on the school at around 9pm on Saturday when a ‘number of teenagers’ broke in and sparked two hours of chaos, with two victims, aged 16 and 19, taken to hospital with non-life threatening knife injuries.
Police said three teenagers were arrested at the scene on suspicion of assaulting emergency works. A spokesman for the force said the group became ‘aggressive’ towards them when officers tried to engage.
The officers who clashed with the youths were treated at the scene by the London Ambulance Service.
Breaking her silence on the incident, Ms Morris said: ‘We were shocked to hear of a disturbance at a private birthday party in our hall over the weekend. This was a private hire and the people involved were not known to us.
‘No one was injured on the school premises and we have carried out thorough checks to ensure that pupils could safely return to school this morning.
‘We have successfully let our premises to the local community for years and have stringent protocols in place.
‘We have written to local residents and parents to give them our assurances of this and we have also decided that the hall will no longer be let out for evening events. The incident is currently a police matter and we are helping with their enquiries.’
MailOnline revealed last night how the venue had space for 80 people, but it quickly became full when those without tickets got in. Then more people arrived who had bought tickets – but weren’t allowed in.
Organisers then kicked everyone out of of the school, before slowly allowing those with tickets back in.
Meanwhile, the gatecrashers who had been evicted became agitated outside and kicked the gates open to get past security and back into the event.
Revellers had also messaged their friends and followers on Snapchat to get them down to the venue.
In chaotic scenes with too many people packed into the venue, organisers called the police and officers arrived to find an angry mob of troublemakers in the street outside the school.
A video clip filmed by one of those in attendance and posted onto the internet shows the moment youths armed with knives above their heads infiltrate the bash.
When police were called just after 9pm and shut down the whole event more than a hundred young people spilled out onto the leafy, suburban streets.
Having messaged friends the crowd soon rose to nearly 200 youngsters with around a dozen or so officers attempting to keep the peace.
Footage exclusively obtained by MailOnline highlights the scale of the disorder including a teenage girl brazenly ‘twerking’ against a police car and CCTV images of masked youths dumping flick knives and machetes onto a nearby resident’s driveway, the unmistakable clanging of metal on the ground heard as they run back to join the fray.
The trouble lasted for more than two hours with police reinforcements called. Dog handlers eventually quelled the worst of the unrest, which at one point reportedly saw as many as 50-youths armed with knives running amok.
Locals in Elm Park, a quiet corner of Hornchurch where the average house price is £500,000 told of their horror today and said the vast majority of troublemakers had travelled in from other areas like Stratford, Plaistow and Ilford on the London Underground District Line.
A mother-of-three who lives near the school said: ‘The road was like a war zone – this is normally a quiet and respectable area, we’ve certainly seen nothing like this before.
‘The school hires out the hall via a third party for events over the weekend. I think it costs something like £55-an-hour.
‘We’ve had events before where there’s complaints over the levels of noise but this was on a completely different scale entirely. My windows and those of my neighbours were literally shaking from the bass.
‘I’ve heard this event described as a 16th birthday party. I think that’s nonsense as there were no parents there and the only people over the age of 20 were the DJ and the organiser. The vast majority of those attending were aged between 16 and 19-years old.
‘It was a ticketed music event. The hall is only designed for no more than 80-people but a number of youths had got in without an official wristband.
‘The organiser got everyone out of the hall and closed the gates but after a short while started letting those with the wristbands back in. Those who didn’t have one were left outside.
‘But all that did was cause trouble as some of them got onto their friends and a crowd started to build up by the side entrance to the school.
‘There wasn’t any proper security at all and so the troublemakers just kicked the gate open and charged in.
‘The police were called and the DJ was heard on the microphone appealing for the youngsters to hide their ‘whip gas canisters’. A lot of them were sniffing nitrous oxide from balloons.
‘When the officers arrived the party was shut down for good and everyone spilled out into the street.
‘That’s when a lot of the trouble began as these kids were messaging their friends on Snapchat and more were arriving.
‘Elm Park tube station is only a five-minute walk from the school and we had a lot of youths coming in via the District Line.
‘I heard one talking on the phone, telling his friend that another friend had been stabbed. There were large groups of teens all over the place shouting, screaming and swearing at the police.
‘To begin with there wasn’t many officers at all and they were in danger of being overwhelmed. I watched maybe two or three officers being completely surrounded and attacked by a mob who were only dispersed when one of the officers used pepper spray.
‘These kids had absolutely no fear of the police. They were taunting them and trying to provoke them. I saw one young girl start twerking against a police car while the crowd cheered.
‘I thought it was going to get really out of hand and I feared someone might be seriously injured – or worse.
‘It was only when the police brought the dogs out that the crowd fled down the road towards the tube station.’
The resident, who asked not to be named, said police maintained a presence in the street all night and officers began looking for weapons the following morning.
She added: ‘I saw police retrieve two machetes which had blades as long as my arm. They also found two flick knives and several pairs of scissors.
‘Apparently officers recovered half a dozen or so machetes hidden in hedges and gardens of the houses near to the British Legion club at the bottom of the road.
‘Some of these kids stupidly came back to the area on Sunday to find the weapons they’d stashed. I saw at least two of them stopped by police officers.’
Another local resident, who also wanted to anonymous for fear of reprisals, said: ‘My son and daughter-in-law were with me on the Saturday night which was a relief otherwise I would have been on my own.
‘It was absolutely terrifying. I really felt for the police, who I must say, did a sterling job.
‘They were outnumbered and facing a really hostile crowd. I saw two girls screaming about being pepper sprayed bang on my neighbour’s door asking for water to wash their eyes.
‘He had a six-month-old baby in the house and so just threw out a couple of bottles of water for them to use.
‘This is a quiet area filled with older people and families. We’re not used to seeing gangs of marauding youths waving knives above their heads.’
One mother claimed her 15-year-old daughter had been taken to hospital after being attacked on a train by the same youths who ran from the party.
She told the Havering Daily: ‘She had gone to a party that was supposed to have correct security but it didn’t and it all went wrong.
‘As she ran scared from the event, she told me the fire exit wasn’t accessible and that as she got on the train, other youths followed and more fighting began.
‘My daughter was attacked on the train and more fights took place. It was awful. Over a hundred youths got on and they were still fighting and doing gas balloons. My daughter is still in hospital.’
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Police were called shortly after 21:00 on Saturday, 22 March, to reports of a fight involving a group on Calbourne Avenue.
‘Officers attended before engaging with a number of teenagers who became aggressive toward them.
‘Three teenagers were arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault on emergency workers.
‘They were taken to an East London police station. They were bailed to return for questioning later today.
‘The officers were treated at the scene by London Ambulance Service medics and do not require hospital treatment.
‘Separately, two individuals, including a 16-year old male and a 19-year old male sustained suspected knife injuries and were taken to hospital where their injuries were deemed neither life changing nor life threatening. They continue to assist police with their enquiries
‘An investigating into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.’
Anyone with information is urged to call 101 or message @MetCC on X, giving the reference 6940/22Mar
