By Yiannis Haniotakis

At least two people were injured after knife attacks during this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, despite police assurances of “reduced incidents of serious violence” compared to previous years.

While thousands of celebrating on the streets of western London, the Metropolitan Police were called to manage multiple incidents. According to eyewitnesses, at least three violent incidents took place along Ladbroke Grove. In one case, a person was seen to bleed, with the police trying to exclude visibility from the public.

Authorities confirmed two incidents of stabbings on Monday, August 28, stating that victims are not in danger of their lives.

By Monday night, more than 420 arrests were made. More specifically, on Monday the number of arrests reached 224, of which 177 were made inside the carnival area and 46 in the surrounding areas. On Sunday, another 200 arrests were preceded, with 149 being made at the carnival and 51 around the event.

It is worth noting that, according to the Metropolitan Police, 52 of the arrests were made thanks to the use of live face recognition technology, a measure applied to identify suspects, but prompting reactions from human rights organizations.

As a police spokesman said: “This year we were aiming for preventively those who attempted to come to the carnival to harm others. We used live face recognition, knife detection devices and our powers for control and research, proceeding to over 400 arrests. These actions have prevented part of the serious violence we have seen in previous carnivals. “