LONDON (AFP) — Three people were injured in ugly scenes at the Urban Music Awards ceremony, with one person seriously hurt, police said on Sunday.
Two others sustained minor injuries during a disturbance at the sixth annual Urban Music Awards at the O2 centre in London late on Saturday. One person has been arrested.
"We were called at 10:11 pm on the 15th to a disturbance at the O2 Arena site," a Metropolitan police spokesman told AFP.
"We found three men suffering injuries. Two are not serious injuries, the other one is. They appeared to be stab or slash victims. There has been one arrest."
A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said the three casualties had been treated at the scene and taken to hospitals.
Police sources indicated that the most serious casualty may have been stabbed and the other two might have been hit by flying glass.
The show was being held in the indigO2 -- a 2,350-capacity venue inside the former Millennium Dome.
Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Duffy and Estelle were among the performers nominated for awards.
Soul singer Mica Paris was to be presented with a lifetime achievement award.
Andre Nevling, 24, said a woman sat at the same table as himself was "covered" in blood.
"Obviously the guy who got stabbed must have run straight past her and she's pretty shaken up," he said.
"I saw blood all over the floor and then I was like, 'Jesus you're covered in it'," he said.
Another eyewitness, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I didn't see what happened but there were champagne bottles flying and I hid under the table."
Natalie Williams, 32, said: "It's a huge shame that a small group of people have ruined everything for everyone."
I was so shocked to hear this. I was supposed to go. Call it divine intervention, but we couldn't find a babysitter so me and the fam decided to go down to the 02 for some grub instead. When we were on our way home we walked past the venue and it looked chaotic to say the least. There were hundreds of people gathered outside watching the red carpet activity. Rude boys were out in all their bejewelled finery, and young girls were screaming their heads off shouting "Oh my gosh, I'll never wash my hands again", after the likes of Sway and Chipmunk, brushed past them. Rich and I were saying that we were kinda glad things didn't work out because it looked so young, and sorry to say... quite ghetto. Although having said that I have every admiration for the Urban Music Awards. It's designed as an antithesis to the MOBO's, who have been criticised throughout the years for ignoring non-mainstream black artists to bag those all-important corporate sponsors (I mean, can you really imagine the MOBO's honouring Mica Paris with a lifetime achievement award?). I could really envision a time when the UMA's eclipsed it's much-maligned rival, but now can't even be too sure whether it will take place again next year.
My thoughts go out to the victims, and also Jordan and the UMA crew.
Two others sustained minor injuries during a disturbance at the sixth annual Urban Music Awards at the O2 centre in London late on Saturday. One person has been arrested.
"We were called at 10:11 pm on the 15th to a disturbance at the O2 Arena site," a Metropolitan police spokesman told AFP.
"We found three men suffering injuries. Two are not serious injuries, the other one is. They appeared to be stab or slash victims. There has been one arrest."
A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said the three casualties had been treated at the scene and taken to hospitals.
Police sources indicated that the most serious casualty may have been stabbed and the other two might have been hit by flying glass.
The show was being held in the indigO2 -- a 2,350-capacity venue inside the former Millennium Dome.
Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Duffy and Estelle were among the performers nominated for awards.
Soul singer Mica Paris was to be presented with a lifetime achievement award.
Andre Nevling, 24, said a woman sat at the same table as himself was "covered" in blood.
"Obviously the guy who got stabbed must have run straight past her and she's pretty shaken up," he said.
"I saw blood all over the floor and then I was like, 'Jesus you're covered in it'," he said.
Another eyewitness, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I didn't see what happened but there were champagne bottles flying and I hid under the table."
Natalie Williams, 32, said: "It's a huge shame that a small group of people have ruined everything for everyone."
I was so shocked to hear this. I was supposed to go. Call it divine intervention, but we couldn't find a babysitter so me and the fam decided to go down to the 02 for some grub instead. When we were on our way home we walked past the venue and it looked chaotic to say the least. There were hundreds of people gathered outside watching the red carpet activity. Rude boys were out in all their bejewelled finery, and young girls were screaming their heads off shouting "Oh my gosh, I'll never wash my hands again", after the likes of Sway and Chipmunk, brushed past them. Rich and I were saying that we were kinda glad things didn't work out because it looked so young, and sorry to say... quite ghetto. Although having said that I have every admiration for the Urban Music Awards. It's designed as an antithesis to the MOBO's, who have been criticised throughout the years for ignoring non-mainstream black artists to bag those all-important corporate sponsors (I mean, can you really imagine the MOBO's honouring Mica Paris with a lifetime achievement award?). I could really envision a time when the UMA's eclipsed it's much-maligned rival, but now can't even be too sure whether it will take place again next year.
My thoughts go out to the victims, and also Jordan and the UMA crew.
4 comments:
I heard about this and I was totally shocked. I guess they paid the price for lack of security. Lets hope they bounce back from this.
For the past 6 years this event's been poorly organised. They just don't seem to learn!
Next year they are organising another event in New York, then in Cameroon, then in Japan....then Cannes
I mean... please... Try and organise a decent well run event here first before going global
Ladies I so agree. Janice, just got the full lowdown on your site from Rwd magazine and it actually sounds worse than I initially imagined. I'm just totally vex that so many acts/events have passed through the 02 without incident, and as soon as a so called "urban" event goes down it transcends into something that resembles the wild wild west.
It just baffles me to why the security was so low key, it's like the venue managers wanted something to happen (conspiracy theory alert!).
This just saddens me, because of a few selfish, ignorant, hyped individuals, black music continues to be tarnishd with this negative brush. I read not too long ago that there are going to start bringing in forms that clubs have to sign before they can host live performaces. Information they have to fill in includes the act performing and the ethnicity of the people likely to be attending the event so they can arrange appropriate security. What is this?
People need to understand that industries grow because of investment - which corporate sponsor is going to want to be aligned to black entertainment now? And i keep on hearing from young black bos "the system is designed for the black man to fail, so why bother". Excuses, excuses, people need to start taking responsibility for their own actions. Sorry for the rant...but once i get started...
xoxo
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