Four held after rave at LMS site
By thisisoxfordshire – Monday 20 July 1998
Copyright: thisisoxfordshire
Four people were arrested after riot police broke up an illegal rave at the LMS building near Oxford railway station.
Officers moved in at 7.30am yesterday after residents complained of being kept awake by thumping music.
Police seized drugs, knives and a Chinese ‘rice flail’ martial arts weapon after clashes with party-goers.
Complaints, including calls from guests at the nearby Royal Oxford Hotel, began flooding in at around midnight on Saturday.
An environmental health officer from Oxford City Council served organisers with a notice to stop the music at 12.30am.
But at 4.30am the party continued and the environmental health officers requested police help under the Environmental Protection Act.
Officers in riot gear moved in to seize the sound system and in reportedly violent scenes that followed, four people were arrested.
An Oxford police spokesman said: “This was a very disruptive party. There was clear evidence of drug misuse and a quantity of substances as well as knives and a rice flail were recovered by police.”
Newspaper delivery man Bill Bowell, of Bridge Street, Osney, saw the police raid.
He said: “The music was ever so loud. It woke up everybody. There were about four police vans and four cars and officers wearing riot gear. Two guys got away by hiding in the chimney pot on the top of the building.”
Four people are being questioned.
Protesters have occupied the listed former station building since May. Last week, councillors granted permission for the building to be dismantled to make way for a road widening scheme and the new Oxford University business school.
