A man was stabbed at a Tottenham community music festival on Saturday in what is rumoured to be an anti-semitic attack.
A group of up to 40 people are said to have descended on Markfield Park at around sunset, throwing fireworks and hurling abuse at people at the free festival.
Oz Katerji, who was at the event, tweeted: “About 150 of us were having a party in Markfield Park in Tottenham, Neo-nazi polish fascists turn up, full scale riot operation.”
He added: “I had better things to do today than get punched in the head by a fascist teenager.”
There are unconfirmed reports that the attackers were holding their own event nearby and belonged to a small Polish nationalist group of extremists known as the Zjednoczeni Emigranci, or United Immigrants, before launching their unprovoked attack on festival-goers including children and families.
Police were called at about 9.10pm and arrived to find a 24-year-old man suffering from a stab wound. He was taken by ambulance to an east London hospital, but his injuries are not believed to be serious.
A video purporting to have been taken during the disturbances was uploaded to YouTube and shows young men throwing fireworks or flares and stones.
Police arrested and later charged a 22-year-old man for racially aggravated common assault after a man’s kippah, or Jewish skullcap, was pushed from his head. No-one has been arrested so far over the stabbing, and officers from Haringey CID are investigating.
Sgt Paul Kane, head of the Tottenham Hale Safer Neighbourhoods police team, posted on Twitter: “We will not tolerate behaviour like this in Haringey.”
The festival was part of World Music Day, an annual string of hundreds of community festivals held across the globe on the summer solstice “to celebrate the universal language of music”.
+ An anti-facist vigil has been called in response to the incident, and will be held at 6pm tonight outside Tottenham Town Hall, Town Hall Approach Road. The trade unionist organisers say they wish to “express concern that such sentiment can exist at all in Haringey and underline that the community is united in opposition to all forms of racism”.
Tottenham Journal
