Armed police called to Elephant & Castle as man waves 'machete'

Southwark Council is holding a specially convened licensing sub-committee meeting on Friday morning to consider whether to suspend the licence of Pasaje Primavera in Maldonado Walk (also known as Eagle Yard) in the railway arches alongside the Strata SE1 tower and Crossway Christian Centre.

The fight took place about 8pm on Saturday 15 December while Southwark's night time economy team – made up of police and council officers – was already in the area.

The Metropolitan Police says that the incident "could easily have ended in tragedy".

In their licence review application, Southwark Police wrote: "PC Ducker noticed that one of the males was waving a large machete-style knife towards other members of the public in a threatening manner.

"For officer safety reasons the officers maintained a safe distance until further units began to arrive. Armed officers and further units arrived and took control of the situation."

The police say that CCTV footage showed between 15 to 20 people involved in the fight before a man "is seen running towards the crowd with the knife raised".

Officers served an immediate closure notice on Paisaje Primavera because the venue was unable to provide CCTV footage of the incident, and now the police have lodged an application for an expedited review of the premises licence, asking councillors to suspend the licence pending a full hearing.