London's Notting Hill Carnival was marred by the stabbing of a 21-year-old man who died as the result of an "unprovoked, motiveless attack", the Metropolitan Police said yesterday. Mr Greg Watson from Northolt, west London, is the first person to be killed at the carnival since 1997, and the incident could damage the attempts by the Mayor of London, Mr Ken Livingstone, to make the carnival the centrepiece of the capital's cultural calendar.
Mr Watson was at the carnival on Monday with friends when, around 10 p.m., he was attacked on Kensal Road, part of the procession route, by a man armed with a long-bladed knife.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said both men were black, and the attack on Mr Watson, who was the father of a three-week-old baby girl, was not being treated as a racially motivated crime.
Det Chief Insp Guy Ferguson commented: "We are at a very early stage of the inquiry and interviewing Mr Watson's friends who were with him at the carnival."
Ms Claire Holder, chief executive of the Notting Hill Trust, which organised the event, said the incident had marred the carnival, which for more than 10 years had been a good example of happiness and harmony.
Scotland Yard said that over the two-day festival, attended by an estimated 1.5 million people, there were 108 arrests and 276 reported crimes, which represented an increase on last year's figures. The majority of arrests were for drug possession, robberies and assaults. Five people were stabbed during the two-day festival, including one person who was struck in the face with a glass.
Police also gave details yesterday of a serious attack on another man at the carnival, who was punched and kicked to the ground. The 28-year-old Asian was "quite seriously injured" after he fell into the basement of a house when the street-level railings collapsed during the attack. A friend who was with the man and was also injured in the attack was discharged from hospital.