Bexley brawl: Seven arrested after riot police called to fight between 100 schoolchildren

'We don't know what it was over or why it even began - it's crazy'

Seven people have been arrested following a "shocking" mass brawl in Bexley which involved more than 100 youths.

The males, aged between 15 and 21, were taken to south London police stations after fighting in Northumberland Heath, which left two people needing hospital treatment.

Police have now launched an investigation and are appealing for information following the disorder, which is now believed to have taken place in at lease five different locations in Bexley.

Officers believe the fighting followed a disturbance on Bexley Broadway at around 4.30pm on 19 September, when a large group of youths had to be dispersed.

Some of the officers called to the scene were from the Metropolitan Police’s Territorial Support Group, which deals with serious public disorder and rioting.

A local resident, who did not want to be named, said she was "shocked" to see children in school uniform involved in the fracas.

"This is the first time for a long, long while that we've had gang-related problems round here," she said.

"They were all youngsters, a lot of them were in school uniform - that was the shock, seeing them in the uniforms.

"They're still youngsters - it's quite a shock when they're all en masse like that, I didn't want to go outside."

She said the police were on the scene quickly and the group started shouting abuse at the officers.

"We don't know what it was over or why it even began - it's crazy," she added.

Police said they would be in the area on the evening of 20 September to reassure the local community and that they would also be working with local schools.

A statement on the local authority website said: "We are obviously dismayed by the incident at Northumberland Heath last night.

We are working with the Police and have a partnership meeting today to establish the facts and would reassure the community that we will do all we can do make sure that any offenders are brought to justice for their actions.

This is not the norm for Bexley - we are the safest borough in London and we aim to work together to keep it that way."

Borough Commander of Bexley, Chief Superintendent Jeff Boothe, said: "This incident was a large scale fight in a public area and would have been shocking to anyone who witnessed it.

"The safety of young people in our borough and the wider community is paramount. We are actively investigating what happened and take matters like this extremely seriously.

"There will be extra patrols in the borough to provide reassurance in the community.

"I would appeal to anyone with information about what happened to contact us. They can speak to their schools liaison officer or they can do this anonymously through Crimestoppers."

Speaking about the scale of the incident, Chief Superintendent Boothe said: "In total over 40 calls were made to police by members of the public and a number of incidents occurred across at least five different locations.

"Every available officer within Bexley was deployed to assist with the incident and support from the TSG was provided.

"We were not able to attend and speak with every person who called police due to the large volume of calls and multiple incidents occurring. The calls had to be prioritised based on the risks and scale of disorder at each venue.

"Officers will be contacting those people who contacted police over the next coming days as part of the investigation, and to provide further reassurance."

Anyone with information or witnesses to the disturbance can call Bexley police on 020 8284 9146, the police non-emergency line on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.