Europe's biggest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival, kicked off its annual summer bank holiday extravaganza on Sunday, drawing revellers of all ages to celebrate Caribbean culture and history.
The festivities commenced early on Sunday with the J’ouvert celebration, where people covered each other in paint, coloured powder and chocolate.
Sunday also marks Children's Day, leading up to the carnival's main event scheduled for Monday.
The streets are set to be flooded with colour, costumes, dancing and music.
About one million people are expected to be on the streets of West London for the event which has been running for more than 50 years, the Metropolitan Police said previously.
About 7,000 police officers will be on duty across the capital this Sunday and Monday.
The Met said live facial recognition (LFR) technology – which captures people’s faces in real-time CCTV cameras – will be used on the approach to and from the carnival as well as outside the boundaries of the event.
Alongside the use of LFR technology, the Met also said it planned to install screening arches at some of the busiest entry points to the carnival, where stop-and-search powers will be used in a bid to keep weapons out.
The Metropolitan Police said as of 7.45pm on Sunday, there had been 140 arrests – 105 at the carnival and 35 on approaches to carnival as a result of proactive policing interventions.
Fifteen arrests were for assaults on police – with one officer requiring hospital treatment for injuries to their hand – while there were 21 for possession of an offensive weapon, 25 for possession of cannabis and six for possession of class A drugs.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of sexual offences and two for robbery.
The force said additional powers had been authorised which remain in force until 2am on Monday and again from 10am on Monday to 2am Tuesday.
