Crime reporter,west london(wp/es):
Thirty-nine people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was chased down and stabbed in west London.
The man, believed to be in his mid-30s, was chased by a group of men and women after a "minor argument" in a shop in Hammersmith in the early hours of Monday, police said.
He is fighting for his life in hospital after he was knifed in Fulham Palace Road shortly before 1am.
Scotland Yard said 39 people were arrested at a property near the scene and taken into custody at several police stations.
The suspects were seen entering the property in Greyhound Road, where there was a party, a short time after the attack.
Officers tried to speak to the large number of people who were inside but they refused to cooperate, leading to the 39 arrests.
A witness, who did not want to be identified, said she saw a group of "kids" running back and forth up and down the street immediately before the stabbing and heard someone shouting: "Get him."
She said: "The person who must have done the stabbing was shouting, 'come on then, come on then'.
"I heard, 'oh no, don't do it' and it was a girl's voice.
"Whoever that girl was, she's probably the only one with sense there.
"They must have stabbed the guy outside Sainsbury's then ran back into that flat."
The woman said she then saw the victim as he was worked on by paramedics.
"As I got to the corner I saw a guy on the floor. He was stabbed here (in the chest)," she said.
A neighbour, Mason El Hage, 22, said he later saw around 50 police officers interrogate 30 to 40 young men and women as they were lined up on the road.
"They lined them up and interrogated them for about an hour," he said.
"I have never seen something like that in my life. It was very extreme in terms of the amount of people involved."
He said he heard noise and dogs barking at around 1.30am and looked outside believing it was a drugs raid.
The group, including young men and women, were arrested in "single file" in a "very, very swift operation," he added.
Dahlia Adling, 45, who works in a nearby grocery store, said she heard an argument and people running at about 1am.
"There was an argument outside here. I could hear it," she said.
She said she heard "aggressive shouting", adding: "It was definitely an argument."
Two knifes were recovered close to the scene, police said.
Photos posted on social media showed several police cars blocking off the busy road as the scene was combed for evidence.
On Monday morning, a pool of blood could be seen on the pavement outside a branch of Sainsbury's on Fulham Palace Road.
On the other side of the road shops, including an off licence, were behind another police cordon.
Superintendent Mark Lawrence, said: "What appears to have been a minor argument has resulted in a man sustaining life-threatening injuries.
"Officers were quickly on the scene and provided him with first aid prior to the arrival of our colleagues in the LAS (London Ambulance Service). He has been taken to hospital where he continues to receive treatment for his injuries.
"Whilst it is unusual for so many people to be arrested in the early stages of an investigation such as this, due to a lack of co-operation and the necessity of securing essential evidence following a serious assault, this action was appropriate."
In October it was revealed that knife crime in London had risen to its highest ever level with nearly 15,000 offences committed in a year.
The Office for National Statistics said the total of 14,987 crimes between the summers of 2017 and 2018 was a 15 per cent rise on the comparable figure 12 months earlier.
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