A massive street fight between police and a drunken mob brought central Harrow to a standstill on Saturday night.>

Drunken mob battles police

by SIMON ROGERSON

A massive street fight between police and a drunken mob brought central Harrow to a standstill on Saturday night.

The stand-off between officers and a crowd of 50 youths was sparked at about 11.15pm by the arrest of a man for throwing a wooden effigy of Ronald McDonald into the street. He was chased by police and eventually caught in College Road, but he resisted arrest and was helped by a group of friends who tried to free him.

A larger crowd gathered around the scene and began advancing on the officers who realised they were hopelessly outnumbered and called for urgent backup.

"There were about 200 people in the area, about 50 of whom presented a definite threat because they had been drinking and were looking for trouble," said Sgt Lorraine Dillon of Harrow police's borough liaison department.

"A female officer was using her retractable metal baton to keep the youths at a distance while they held the suspect. It was a violent and frightening situation."

Patrol cars from Harrow, Wembley and Northolt all responded to the call for help and within minutes there were 20 officers on the scene. One of the cars from Wembley crashed on its way to Harrow: no-one was injured.

"Officers eventually managed to contain the scene and calm down the crowd," Sgt Dillon said. "Several arrests were made, and three officers sustained injuries in the process. We are now studying video footage from the town centre's security cameras with a view to making further arrests."

Police carry out high profile "rowdy patrols" around the town centre at weekends to prevent drunken games from getting out of hand. Although the bus station is no longer seen as a no-go zone, sporadic fights are common.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.