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Man stabbed in neck at BlackBerry BBM party

A man was seriously injured after being stabbed in the neck with a bottle at a BlackBerry party in London.

Luke Westaway Senior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
2 min read

This isn't the kind of story we'd normally cover, but as some members of our team were present, we thought we'd bring you the news that a man has been left in a serious condition after reportedly being stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle at a BlackBerry event in London.

An argument broke out as guests were queuing to leave the event, resulting in a man in his 30s being injured. Police say the man is in a "serious" condition, according to the Telegraph.

He was taken to an East London hospital, while one man has been arrested and is in custody, the paper reports.

The party was held in honour of BBM, the instant messaging service popular with BlackBerry owners. Several members of the CNET UK team (myself included) had been at the event earlier, while others who were present at the time of the incident told me how the police held attendees in the venue afterwards to collect statements.

CNET UK editor Jason Jenkins told me that guests were moved around inside the Southwark venue while police collected names, dates of birth, addresses and contact numbers for the crowd, which included journalists, some celebrities and -- it's reported -- BlackBerry competition winners, all of whom had come to see a performance by Brit award winner Jessie J.

The show had finished at the time of the incident -- my colleague Amie Parker-Williams told me guests trying to get to the cloakrooms and bathroom through a single corridor meant there was a lot of pushing and shouting, with broken glasses and alcohol on the floor.

Amie said that paramedics were quick to arrive, but that the injured man had clearly lost a lot of blood.

Jason Jenkins told me he eventually managed to leave the venue after a couple of hours. "It was a sad end to what had been a fun evening, but mostly I hope the victim recovers quickly," he said.