Blake’s NightclubVehicle Incursion

Date: 17/03/2018. Contemporary reporting places the incident shortly before midnight on 17 March 2018, with police called at 11.47pm; later court and sentencing sources also identify 17 March 2018 as the incident date.

Location: Blake’s nightclub / Blakes Nightclub, Queen Street, Gravesend, Kent, England. Source wording includes “Queen Street in Gravesend” and “Blake’s nightclub in Gravesend, Kent”; the sentencing remarks describe “Blakes Nightclub, Queen Street in Gravesend, Kent.”

Incident name: Blake’s nightclub vehicle incursion. Sources more commonly describe it as a car being driven into Blake’s nightclub / onto a packed dancefloor at Blake’s nightclub in Gravesend.

After being ejected from Blake’s nightclub, Mohammed Abdul returned in a Suzuki Vitara and drove down an alleyway and into the nightclub’s marquee/dancefloor area. He was arrested, later retried, convicted of two counts of attempted murder, and sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment.

Reported injuries: Conflicting figures are reported. Initial reports said at least 13 people were injured. Later court and sentencing sources refer to eight injured. One later Sky News report said “at least 10 people” were injured. Specific injuries reported in sources include broken bones, broken knees, dislocated knees, dislocated pelvises, a fractured pelvis, a broken knee, a broken shin, and longer-term psychological effects on some victims.

Reported fatalities: No fatalities found in the sources reviewed. Contemporary reports said no injuries were life-threatening or life-changing, and the nightclub statement as quoted by the Guardian said it was relieved nobody was “fatally hurt.”