Urban Music Awards: Only a little bit stabby

If the Urban Music Awards had been attempting to celebrate British youth and show there's more to life than knife crime, it botched it a little as poor security allowed the prize-giving to descend into chaos:

Three people have been stabbed during a music awards ceremony in south-east London.

One man was seriously hurt while two others received minor injuries at the Urban Music Awards at the O2 arena.

Kanye West is believed to have already issued a complaint about how it was decided who would receive minor injuries at the awards.

Taling to the BBC, the team who run O2's Millennium Dome complex sounded slightly surprised that such a thing could have happened:

An O2 spokesperson said: "Nothing of this nature has ever taken place in the venue before and all the usual stringent security measures were in place.

"We are working closely with the police to understand how this happened. Our thoughts are with the victims of the attack."

O2 didn't comment on if - as with the tickets - O2 customers get a chance to be stabbed at their venue before the opportunity is opened to the general public.

Curiously, though, while O2 claim that the security on the night was its usual, stringent self, others told the BBC a different story:

Natalie Williams, 32, said: "Before anything even happened I commented to my boyfriend, because we live nearby and come here a lot, and we usually get screened coming into the building. Tonight there was nothing."

Chris Miller, who was reviewing the awards for an online music guide, said people were wandering into the press room without a pass.

"Even when we were waiting outside in the press area for stars to arrive, it was a melee," he said.

"The security was so slack."

Apparently there had been a deal in place to syndicate the awards show to fifteen countries but, as the prize-giving was abandoned, that might not happen now.

LWT - sorry, ITV Local London - were in attendance, although somehow it slipped their minds to mention that they were broadcast partners in the event rather than just bystanders when they published their report.