Stratford Halloween Firework Fiasco

On a night where children’s laughter resonates through dimly lit streets, where masked faces roam under the cape of darkness in search of candy and chocolates to fill their baskets, a group of teenagers in East London had a different idea of Halloween fun.

The town of Stratford was greeted by a group of unexpected guests on the night of Halloween. A group of around 200 teenagers from East London decided to gather at Stratford Station on Halloween, with the event having been advertised on the social media platform TikTok. The poster urged anyone who decided to come to bring as many fireworks as they could for a “firework war” and dress in black, presumably to hide their identity.

The gathering of teens ended up setting off multiple fireworks at people in the nearby vicinity of Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford. Two of the victims were a mother and her baby in a pram, who were hit directly by a firework that a teen within the group had fired at them in an attempt to cause a raucous. The police was luckily warned of this occurring beforehand, and so were able to be present in time to minimise the damage caused to members of the public nearby. A thirteen year old was arrested on an attempt of lighting a firework at officers, while many other teens fired fireworks at police cars whilst police tried to stop them. 

Ahmer Shehryar, a student who had received an invite from one of his friends, decided not to go after warnings from his mother, said “I’m so glad I listened I would never have wanted to be caught up in such a mess, Halloween is meant to be a night to have fun, they went and ruined it for a lot of people”

Supposedly, the teen who started this on TikTok has advertised a “second round” for the fireworks war, nothing has yet to come of it at present.