Bromley machete attack: Second teenager arrested in connection with shopping centre knife attack

A second teenager has been arrested following an incident at a shopping centre in Bromley, Kent where a man was seen wielding a machete on Boxing Day (2015). The 16-year-old youth was arrested at his home in Lewisham, south London, on Sunday morning (27 December).

According to police the boy who was arrested is the same youth who was treated in hospital for a minor head wound following the incident. Two knives were recovered at the scene, one of which appeared to be a two-foot machete.

Boxing Day shoppers fled in panic as news circulated about the incident in the Intu shopping centre, formerly The Glades, with some suspecting a terrorist link following an attack at Leytonstone Tube Station on 5 December. A firearms team were sent to the scene, but were not called into action.

App developer Keith Moon, 35, told the Press Association: "We could see people running towards the exit, it wasn't quite clear what it was at first. But then they seemed to be running in panic. My wife heard someone say that there was a gunman running around so we ran towards the exit. We got outside and there were a lot of people, some quite emotional."

In a statement the Metropolitan Police said: "A second teenager has been arrested in connection with an altercation between a number of youths at a shopping centre in Bromley on Boxing Day. The 16-year-old boy [B] was arrested at his home address in Lewisham borough this morning, Sunday 27 December on suspicion of affray.

"He was initially taken to a south London hospital for treatment to a minor wound before being discharged and taken into custody at a south London police station, where he remains at this time. The first 16-year-old boy [A] arrested at the scene - on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon - remains in custody, also at a south London police station."