Witnesses to a stabbing in Walthamstow Market today have described the moment a man was brutally attacked in front of crowds of people.

At around 1pm a fight broke out between two males, during which one was repeatedly stabbed in the face.

Police have now cordoned off the area of the High Street around the Natwest bank, which is also crowded with market stalls.

Witnesses who shop and work in the area did not want to be identified over fear of reprisals.

One woman said: “All I saw was the man go on the floor. He was doing something with his head it looked like he was hitting him.

“People started shouting and he got up and ran off.

“The man he attacked tried to walk the other way and he was swaying. Me and my daughter got him a chair, he had blood all over his face like someone had tried to cut his skull open.

“I thought the woman next to me was going to pass out.”

A man in his 20s was taken to hospital as a priority by the London Ambulance Service.

No arrests have been made.

For more on this story, see next week's Guardian