When a gang of 50 to 70 youths launched a horrifying knife attack in east London after crashing a school birthday party, four police officers were injured in the aftermath.
Terrified residents awoke to find their front gardens littered with weapons abandoned as the suspects made off on foot after stabbing two young people.
Now questions are being asked about how events in the rented hall of Elm Park Primary School, Hornchurch, spiralled so dangerously out of control on Saturday night.
Horrific footage posted online shows the moment panicked children fled for their lives after thugs armed with knives and machetes burst into a girl’s private 16th birthday celebration. Fighting breaks out.
According to locals, the catalyst had been one young female sharing details of the location on social media, which mobilised teenage boys from nearby Harold Hill and Hackney, 15 miles away.
Just after 9pm, groups were filmed screaming and running away from troublemakers gathered in the corner of a hall at the school.
Other clips show young people shouting and screaming outside in Calbourne Avenue and South End Road for nearly two hours.
Police use dogs and shout at youngsters to clear the area after dozens of officers were scrambled to the scene. Teenagers rooted to the spot in fear are seen putting their arms around each other.
London Ambulance Service took a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man to hospital with knife wounds, but their injuries are deemed neither life changing nor life-threatening, the Metropolitan Police said.
Two girls - aged 14 and 17 - and a 16-year-old boy were arrested at the scene on suspicion of assaulting police and have since been bailed.
The following day, officers held boys of 15 and 17 in Hornchurch on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.
More arrests are expected as CCTV and mobile phone data is examined.
Councillor Julie Wilkes, who represents the Elm Park ward, urged residents not to panic and plans to arrange an emergency public meeting with police and the school next week for a tight-knit community demanding answers.
“I’m glad I haven’t got children that age,” she told the Standard.
“But people must stay calm. The police are stepping up patrols and doing their best. They are getting to the bottom of what happened.”
One local described the scenes as “simply horrific”, adding: “Girls can be worse than boys – some were attacking the police.”
She added: “People are worried for their safety. We’ve never had anything like this in Elm Park.
“When the police turned up, the male youths chucked their weapons in front gardens. So on the Sunday morning, local residents got up and handed the knives in to the police.”
Jake Springford, who saw the aftermath, told BBC News he heard a lot of noise and looked out his window to see “60, 70 plus teenagers all congregated”.
He said: “Suddenly I just heard a load of screams, people screaming about fights, people running down the street.”
Mr Springford saw some in the group were “drinking, doing nitrous oxide balloons”, adding: “It wasn’t until the fight started and you heard the screaming, people shouting about being stabbed, that it just escalated from there.
“The first lot of police did a sort of drive through to try and disperse, some were chasing them down the road.”
Mr Springford thought the incident was “disgraceful” and said: “I know the school has to rent out the space to try and get some extra money, but it’s a primary school – they’re renting it out for parties, parties with alcohol, parties until 11 o'clock at night.
“It shouldn’t be happening here at all.”
A resident, who has lived in Romford over 40 years, claimed: “What happened in Elm Park is the same as we see nationally.
“There’s a lot of tension and bad feeling about marauding youths with knives who seem untouchable.”
One mother claimed her 15-year-old daughter had also been taken to hospital after being attacked on a train youths who ran from the party.
The woman told Havering Daily: “She had gone to a party that was supposed to have correct security but it didn’t and it all went wrong.
“As she ran scared from the event, she told me the fire exit wasn’t accessible and that as she got on the train, other youths followed and more fighting began.
“My daughter was attacked on the train and more fights took place. It was awful. Over a hundred youths got on and they were still fighting and doing gas balloons. My daughter is still in hospital.”
In a letter to local residents, Superintendent Simon Hutchison said officers were outnumbered despite arriving at the scene within four minutes.
He said: “During the initial confrontation, four of my officers were injured and yet were still able to prevent this incident becoming significantly more serious.
“They showed tremendous bravery confronting this group despite the numbers and level of potential violence. I am proud of the courage that each of those officers showed.”
Supt Hutchison added searches were carried out and a number of discarded weapons discovered.
“I want to be clear that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated,” he said.
“We would ask the public not to speculate on social media as this can increase tensions in the community.
“At this stage we have no intelligence to suggest that any similar incidents are expected to take place.
“That said, we have contingencies, should we need to respond to any further disorder.”
Victoria Morris, executive headteacher of Elm Park Primary School, has cancelled any further evening events in the hall.
“We were shocked to hear of a disturbance at a private birthday party in our hall over the weekend,” she added in a statement.
Please read a letter to Havering residents from the borough's Superintendent following the incident in Elm Park over the weekend.@metpoliceuk @HaveringDaily @LBofHavering @essex_crime @LocalCrimeBeats pic.twitter.com/pFIH3gQQw2
— Havering MPS (@MPSHavering) March 25, 2025
“This was a private hire and the people involved were not known to us.
“No one was injured on the school premises and we have carried out thorough checks to ensure that pupils could safely return to school this morning.
“We have successfully let our premises to the local community for years and have stringent protocols in place.
“We have written to local residents and parents to give them our assurances of this and we have also decided that the hall will no longer be let out for evening events.
“The incident is currently a police matter and we are helping with their enquiries.”
In a statement, the Met said: “An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.
“In response to this incident, police patrols in the area are being stepped up at key times.
“We are working with our partners at Havering Council to understand what occurred, and to ensure that nothing like it occurs again.”
