' WOW NO WONDER '

WOW NO WONDER THE VIRUS IS SPREADING BEYOND

WALES / CARDIFF ON SATURDAY

These pictures dont lie.



The dramatic scenes and accounts from an incredibly busy day and violent night in Cardiff

Streets were packed with Christmas shoppers and pubs were fully booked, with reports of people travelling to the city from lockdown England, but then things spilled over into violence

By Anna Lewis

Media Wales

Sunday 22nd November 2020

Shoppers and pubs have described one of the busiest Saturdays of the year in Cardiff hours before a "violent disturbance" that left six people injured.

Pubs and restaurants were fully booked ahead of the weekend as hundreds of people descended on the capital city to take advantage of Christmas shopping.

On Saturday queues were seen outside many shops in the city centre despite the rain as people took advantage of the second weekend after fire-break lockdown.

Later on Saturday evening, the streets were described as "crazy" compared to a normal weekend while customers enjoyed a drink ahead of the 10pm curfew. According to pub owners, a number of customers were believed to have come across the border from England, despite the national lockdown still in place.


At around 9.50pm, a heavy police presence attended Queen Street after receiving "multiple" reports of a violent incident.

Six people were injured, including three with stab wounds and one person with a head injury.

Four teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder in connection with the incident and remain in police custody.

On Sunday, the town centre remained busy during the day time and evening, with groups of people spotted in St Mary Street and near Cardiff Castle.


Describing the city centre in the afternoon before Saturday's attack, one group from Treorchy and Tonypandy said the amount of people out shopping made some members feel "anxious".

Lisa Pearce said: "It's not the same. There's too many people, it's making me anxious. We'll all have to go back to the hospital because of all the people here. We've had to queue in each place and you can't get to a pub because everywhere is fully booked."

Friend Kirsty Richards added: "I came last Sunday and it wasn't like this but because it's a Saturday everyone is off."

Posting ahead of Saturday night, one pub in the city centre urged customers to be "nice" ahead of what was expected to be the "busiest Saturday of the year".

In a Facebook post, Bub's Cardiff said: "Been absolutely swarmed with emails today and yesterday of people trying to book a table for tonight - lemme tell you now, we've been fully booked for a while.

"Go easy on us, we're a small team, we don't pay someone extra to do the emails and take the bookings, it's one person in the morning whilst also setting up the bar and getting everything ready for the day.

"Now, as I said - we are fully booked today..."

Footage of the major incident in Queen Street:


Over in St David's Street, Traders Tavern owner Nicola McCue described a "very busy" day and evening for the city centre pub on Saturday.

She said: "It was very busy yesterday all day. We did find it was not all Welsh people too. We did find a lot of people yesterday were from over the bridge which is something that needs to be addressed.

"Every weekend has been the same. We are fully booked next week, and the 18th.

"It's good but we have got to have someone on the door, if someone moves you have to have the table quickly cleared as you don't want empty space. It's hard work. At closing time, people are just getting stuck into it when you ring the bell at quarter to 10."

Speaking about the incident on Saturday evening, she added: "We did see a lot of commotion back at the Motorpoint Arena area.

"But we never had any trouble, we have got nothing but complements at the end of the night."


One pub owner, who did not want to be named, also described a busy night after turning a number of people away at the door.

They added: "We had a lot of English people over here celebrating Christmas."

On Saturday evening, one eye-witness described a "mass brawl" outside Central Bar in Windsor Place.

Find out about crime levels where you live:

They said: "It was 9.45pm outside Central Bar when the incident started. There were around 15-20 males fighting outside.

"One group then ran towards Sainsbury’s pursued by the other, one with a chair over their head. This was thrown and hit a parked car.

"Police were called at 9.46pm and arrived on scene at around 9.48."

South Wales Police have since been granted powers to ban people from the city centre for 24 hours if they cause trouble


One woman who lives in the city centre also said there was plenty of people drinking on Saturday night.

She said: “I live in the flats above Greggs so I saw the whole incident but town was crazy last night.
"It felt like a normal weekend. So many people were out drinking and there was no social distancing anywhere. We’ve come so far but it looks like we’re going backwards already.”

Another added: "Town was awful, mental. Massive crowds on the streets and lots of groups and students.”

For other businesses, however, Saturday marked a busy day but nothing close to the numbers they would usually expect at this time of year.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Well these bar owners need to refuse punters from over the bridge,so much for "necessary travel only" !! The bridge and m50 should be permanently manned,stop every car and check as to reasons for coming here?? The numbers in town,were as per normal for this time of year and social distance rules have been completely ignored,both by joe public,bar owners,and shops alike!! For me personally, they can cancel this 5 day "virus holiday" and then no meed to be on lockdowns again!! Im no killjoy,but ask yourself,is it worth having 5 days freedom,only yo be locked away again,probably for at least a month! For me its not worth the trade off,this virus doesnt respect"christmas" so wont be taking time off,so we can all party with who we want! Another reason to keep control of our movements/freedoms is all this offer is,and only because they KNOW people will visit family at christmas anyway,its the government trying to make themselves look good,by offering us a Christmas gift!! They know people would ignore rules and spend Christmas with loved ones and family,so pretend to be"nice" like we are all stupid.

Think you'll find the trouble was local teenagers from Cardiff not pub gowers! How else would you describe the arrest of 16 and 17yr olds not older people? Or do we as I said previously suggested cancel xmas close everything down until jan 2nd because how else you going to stop people shopping or going for drinks...

Well these bar owners need to refuse punters from over the bridge...

I get where you're coming from, but in fairness, if you had your livelihood consistently ripped away from you at each and every turn would you be prepared to turn away any business you could get in the little window of opportunity you've got?

Can't blame the pubs and shops for the systematic failure of the Senedd and Westminister.

Well these bar owners need to refuse punters from over the bridge...

I get where you're coming from, but in fairness, if you had your livelihood consistently ripped away from you at each and every turn would you be prepared to turn away any business you could get in the little window of opportunity you've got?

Can't blame the pubs and shops for the systematic failure of the Senedd and Westminister.

What did pub landlords do wrong? It wasnt their patrons arrested it was 16/17yr old what were they doing in town at 10pm.... people are entitled to go for drink and shop are they not? If people are to scared to move that's their problem they should not be casgating other people for carrying on as normal as they can under the circumstances.

Well these bar owners need to refuse punters from over the bridge,so much for "necessary travel only" !! The bridge and m50 should be permanently manned,stop every car and check as to reasons for coming here?? The numbers in town,were as per normal for this time of year and social distance rules have been completely ignored,both by joe public,bar owners,and shops alike!! For me personally, they can cancel this 5 day "virus holiday" and then no meed to be on lockdowns again!! Im no killjoy,but ask yourself,is it worth having 5 days freedom,only yo be locked away again,probably for at least a month! For me its not worth the trade off,this virus doesnt respect"christmas" so wont be taking time off,so we can all party with who we want! Another reason to keep control of our movements/freedoms is all this offer is,and only because they KNOW people will visit family at christmas anyway,its the government trying to make themselves look good,by offering us a Christmas gift!! They know people would ignore rules and spend Christmas with loved ones and family,so pretend to be"nice" like we are all stupid.

its been 9 months mate... im surprised the restrictions have gone as well as they have....truth is most people do not directly know anyone thats died of this while probably knowing quite a few who have died of other things.... ...and the minority that do know a covid death were mostly not shocked by it....

To clarify,I'm not castigating anyone in truth,just stating facts about crowding etc,was anything else to be expected? I never thought it would be any different tbf,but the goverment bang on about social distancing etc,whilst they are not the one's trying to implement their dopey rules,
To state clearly,I'm not a fan of lockdowns at all! And the "5 day holiday" what a load of tosh,if people are grateful for this,then I feel for them,genuinely,lots of people I speak to,were visiting family at Christmas, rules or no rules! ! And I will say you can hardly blame them,some haven’t seen family for nearly a year..

I see they're pushing the funny camera angles again. You can see people on the left that look like they're on top of each other, but they're in one of those 2m social distance queues. Nice to see people out keeping others in business rather than accellerating our race to close all businesses other than Amazon, Asda and Tesco.

People would rather virtue-signal themselves into starvation than go against the grain.

Does anyone else see the irony of this:

"Describing the city centre in the afternoon before Saturday's attack, one group from Treorchy and Tonypandy said the amount of people out shopping made some members feel "anxious".

Lisa Pearce said: "It's not the same. There's too many people, it's making me anxious. We'll all have to go back to the hospital because of all the people here. We've had to queue in each place and you can't get to a pub because everywhere is fully booked.""

So this "group" was happy to travel down into a city, presumably sharing cars of using public transport, they don't live and then wonder why it's so busy

Don't they have shops, pubs or the internet in Treorchy and Tonypandy !!??

So as well as having to accommodate tens of thousands of students and 60,000 commuters every day Cardiff now has Christmas shoppers to cater for too. Seems to me that Cardiff residents get forgotten about when it comes to minimising transmission/contact rates.

Seven boys from Cardiff arrested following violent disorder in city centre


Media Wales

Tuesday 24th November 2020



The violent incident that left some in hospital with stab wounds involved two groups of teenagers from the Grangetown and Rumney areas of the city


Two groups of teenagers from different areas of Cardiff were involved in the violent disorder in the city centre at the weekend, police have said.

South Wales Police say seven boys have now been arrested in connection with the incident that left six people in hospital with various injuries including stab wounds and head injuries.

Detectives say two groups of teenagers, from the Grangetown and Rumney areas of the city, some who had come into the city centre armed with knives, were involved. The disorder began in Queen Street at around 9.50pm on Saturday.

On Tuesday police said the boys, all aged 16 and 17, have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and have been released on bail pending further inquiries.

More arrests are anticipated and police are looking through CCTV from the area as part of the investigation.

Detective Superintendent Esyr Jones, from South Wales Police, said: "It is still early days in terms of the investigation but we are forming a picture of what has happened on Saturday.

"Two groups of young people have come into the city centre, some with knives, and the result is an unacceptable level of violence.

"We are still trawling through vast amounts of CCTV and speaking to a number of witnesses and we will be relentless in identifying and arresting all those involved.

"As part of the wider investigation and to ensure Cardiff remains a safe place for all families will be visited and offered support to help divert young people away from serious violence and knife crime."

Of the six taken to hospital three – two aged 16 and one aged 17 – remain in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Shocking !!!