A Halloween party in Chandler’s Ford, near Eastleigh in southern England, ended with five teenagers seriously injured in a knife attack. According to police, the victims are aged 16 and 17 and were taken to hospital after the attack, which happened on Saturday evening.
The incident broke out shortly after 10:30pm
According to Hampshire Police, the attack happened on Park Road shortly after 10:30pm, at the venue where a Halloween party was taking place.
Investigators suspect that a group of people who have not yet been identified entered the party area before the situation escalated into a knife attack. So far, there is no official information on the identity of the attackers or the motive for the incident.
Five young people seriously injured
Police said that those injured include three 16-year-old boys and two 17-year-olds. All five were taken to hospital for medical treatment.
Authorities have not provided further details about their condition beyond saying that the injuries are considered serious.
Witnesses describe scenes of panic
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that several ambulances arrived at the scene immediately after the alarm was raised.
One of them said they saw a person running away from the house while shouting that he had been stabbed and was being chased by two people. These remain individual witness accounts, while the full circumstances are being verified by investigators.
Area cordoned off, investigation remains open
Police have put a security cordon in place around the area and have appealed for information from anyone who may have seen or recorded anything useful to the investigation.
For her part, the officer leading the investigation, Detective Inspector Elizabeth Pirie, acknowledged residents’ concern about the incident. Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis has also expressed support for the injured and their families, while calling for speculation and unverified information to be avoided.
The incident has raised serious questions about safety at gatherings involving young people, while those responsible remain unidentified.
For now, what is officially known is that five teenagers have ended up in hospital and that the police investigation is continuing with no one yet identified as responsible.