Parking queue in Peterborough leads to ‘nine-person knife fight’

Police are investigating reports of a fight between nine people following a parking dispute.

News of the battle emerged as Cambridgeshire Police published a log of 999 calls received by the control room between 4pm and 9pm BST on Friday.

It happened just before 6.30pm that day in Peterborough, with a caller reporting seeing someone with a knife.

Police indicated they suspected an affair and said an investigation was underway.

During the five-hour 999 “postathon”, call handlers received 227 calls.

One said an ex-partner was “standing outside their house with petrol cans”, while another reported a man “dancing” on the highway.

In another series of calls, police said one was about someone’s Amazon package being lost, while another reported someone had put children’s toys and pillows in the top of the trash.

Twenty calls remained silent, five of which were suspected pocket calls.

In response to a number of calls on Friday, police said:

• The man who was ‘dancing’ on a highway had been ‘brought to safety’ by officers.
• There was ‘an investigation’ into the report of an ex-partner with petrol cans. Police said a “suspect” had left the area and the “victim” had been “accosted by officers.”
• A report of an “intentional fire” at Peterborough Prison was “under investigation”.
• The man concerned about his missing Amazon package had been “advised to call 101” – a non-emergency number.

Supt Nick Church: said: “We often hear about officers on the frontline, but rarely do we hear about the hard work and resilience of our control room staff, who are on hand 24 hours a day to help the public when they need police assistance.

“This ‘postathon’ was important to raise awareness of the number of calls we receive, but also to demonstrate the variety and complexity of some of the incidents we deal with.”