A brawl broke out on Southend seafront at 4pm on Tuesday as terrified beachgoers looked on.
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Witnesses said the beach, previously branded as the “worst place on Earth”, was like a “war zone” with teens dressed in “black masks” and “balaclavas”.
One teenage girl was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and a public order offence. She was released under investigation.
In the last 12 months there have been 4,294 violence and sexual offences in Southend Central.
Police data also revealed 1,211 cases of anti-social behaviour, while public offences accounted for 9.7% of all crimes in the area between July 2022 and June 2023.
Owner of De Olde Chippe James Nichols said: “There are hordes of people that come down. All teenagers. They all gather and it’s very intimidating for the families that come down.
“The minority start to fight and once the police get involved it’s game over from there. The dogs turn up. The police have to use resources like pepper spray. We do lose customers over it.
“It normally happens when the sun comes out. It was arranged for the Wednesday on social media, but they changed it because the weather wasn’t great yesterday.
“We all know it’s going to happen. We can even tell you what time. For some reason the police don’t seem able to handle it. There’s another one arranged for the end of the month on TikTok.”
“You’ve got thousands of them running up and down the seafront,” the 43-year-old, from Tilbury, continued. “There was an acid attack. A young kid got acid thrown in his face. I’ve got members of staff that no longer want to work here.
“Last year there were multiple stabbings on the seafront which was gang warfare. We had a guy we brought into the shop that we had to perform emergency first aid on until paramedics turned up.
“We couldn’t open the next day because this area was a crime scene. There have been four or five acid attacks that we are aware of.”
Street maintenance worker Perry Christie, 60, from Stepney Green, said: “It was about 3.30pm. I was doing the bins and then all of a sudden when I looked up there were loads of people on the beachfront.
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“A lot of them were sort of teenagers. They must have been coming down on trains. There were more and more and it looked like thousands to me.
“Every time the police would search someone, they’d just want to get their phones out and run to it. We were told to go home early and just keep out of it.
“I asked one of them what was happening and they said ‘a big party’. I asked ‘am I invited?’.”
Lucy Pack, 18, a first aider with South Essex Property Services (SEPS), said: “There was a huge group of kids on the beach. The police arrived to shut it down and it all went crazy.
“There were kids running and police running after them. People were getting arrested. I had to shut the door. It was a little bit scary actually because I work on my own. I felt quite vulnerable.
“I heard that people were planning on throwing acid. I went on the beach and a liquid flew in the air. There were people clutching their legs.
“People were screaming and holding onto their body parts. They looked in pain. We didn’t expect it to become violent.”
Dan Black, 33, foreshore inspector with Southend City Council, said: “There were these waterguns. They were saying there was acid in the waterguns. There were also baseball bats.
“It was all planned on TikTok. I think it was called Southend Motive. It was meant to be a beach party.
“Last summer there were stabbings. That was definitely more gang related. I’ve worked on the seafront for years and I see it every year really.
“You get the gangs that come down for the day and cause a bit of trouble.”
Paul Thompson, owner of Pebbles One, said: “A lot of 14 or 15-year-old kids are interacting with the police. I think a dispersal order had been put in place but they weren’t going.
“There were scuffles with the police. It’s generally a seaside family resort. Unfortunately occasionally these groups of people from London go on TikTok and arrange to come down here and cause trouble. I would like the police to be more robust with them to be fair.”
Pebbles One worker Francesca Thompson, 16, said: “This kind of thing happens when they get put on social media. Like the last time there were GCSEs it happened here.
“There was also a similar thing in Chalkwell. Someone will start word of it and tell everyone to go down to Southend. This year it’s happened twice.
“When you get to the summer, there are lots of people that come in from other areas and the beach gets so packed. That’s usually when people chuck stuff on the beach.”
One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “I’ve heard that some of the east London gangs come down on the train and then they have a bit of a brawl or fight with some of the gangs here.
“We only come here in the day. I wouldn’t come at night.”
Essex Police said they had not received any reports of acid attacks.
Chief Superintendent Waheed Khan, South Local Police Area Commander, said: “We are acutely aware that this incident will have caused concern among the public, both those who witnessed it directly and those who may have seen images and videos circulating on social media.
“Incidents such as this are very rare in Southend, and it is exactly why we have Operation Union in place, so we can respond quickly to incidents as they happen, as we did in this case.
“Those who will have seen the footage will have seen a robust policing response to a challenging situation.
“It is important to note although officers were dealing with a large group of people, there were no reports of serious incident or serious injuries.
“One teenage girl was arrested, and she has been released under investigation.
“We are, of course, aware incidents such as this will have an impact on businesses and the importance of the summer months to them.
“I can assure them there will continue to be an appropriate policing presence in the city today [Wednesday] and in the coming days.”
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