A man is fighting for his life in hospital after being stabbed at the Notting Hill carnival in London.
The Metropolitan police said three men, all aged 18, had been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after the incident on Monday.
The victim, thought to be in his 20s, sought help from paramedics at a makeshift London ambulance service treatment centre at about 1pm on day two of the carnival.
He was then taken to a central London hospital for treatment for his life-threatening injuries, Scotland Yard said.
Among the three arrests, two were also arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and the third was also arrested for possession of class B drugs.
Some 216 people had been arrested at the carnival by 3pm on Monday. The vast majority – 126 – of these arrests happened on Sunday, known traditionally as the calmer, child-friendly day of Europe’s biggest street festival.
More than £30,000 worth of counterfeit over-proof alcohol – including more than 260 bottles of spirits and champagne, 50 cases of beer and cider, and six large containers of rum punch – were seized by officers on Monday morning.
The Met commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, expressed his worries over a rise in knife crime after 11 stabbings at last year’s event, an increase on 2013. In some cases, he said, these incidents were “just centimetres from being a murder”.
