A student needs facial reconstruction surgery after being attacked at Parklife. Relatives of the 20-year-old man, who wishes to stay anonymous, say he was punched to the ground and had his head stamped on.
The Surrey University student was left unconscious with a fractured face after being attacked during 50 Cent’s headline performance. Violence erupted after a group of about six men made a female friend in the victim’s group ‘uncomfortable’.
His family has also claimed that traffic gridlock around the site meant an ambulance could not take him to hospital on Saturday night. That meant the man’s friends had to search ‘for hours’ to find a taxi that could take him to be seen.
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“He was stood watching the performance when a group of six males approached them and began making my cousin’s female friends uncomfortable,” a relative of the man’s told the Manchester Evening News. “They were trying to get too close to her. He moved her away from them.
"He persisted. They said to leave her alone. It began escalating. They told him to calm down.”
However, the assailant did not calm down, and then resorted to violence, the relative claimed. She added: “He started punching him in the face. He fell to the floor. The guy stamped on his head, he was unconscious. He was unconscious for a few minutes.
“Friends had to carry [him] to [paramedics]. They gave him first aid but they took him to the ambulance and waited for an hour. It was too gridlocked to take him to hospital, they said. “He regained consciousness but was drifting in and out. He felt like he had a concussion. They had to carry him to find a taxi, it took them hours to get to hospital.”
In the end, the man suffered ‘multiple fractures to his face’, and requires ‘facial reconstruction surgery’, the relative added. The family have since reported the incident to the police.
A spokesperson for the force has confirmed that they have received a report of ‘a crime for wounding with intent to do GBH’, and ‘the crime remains open and it has been allocated to a DI’. No arrests have been made at this stage, GMP added.
Parklife has been contacted for comment.
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