IN a week plagued by violent crime in Stourbridge – residents have reported yet another terrifying incident in Lye.

Police and paramedics were called out at around 5pm yesterday evening (Friday February 15) to Stourbridge Road where residents reported seeing a man lying in the street, covered with a blanket, with ambulance crews at his side.

A police cordon was reportedly put in place and samurai sword and a cricket bat were pictured in a blood-spattered street; clothes were also strewn across the footpath.

The incident is believed to have been a fight between two groups who were known to each other.

Two men were injured and taken to hospital but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. One suffered a slash wound to his arm and the other a broken leg after being hit by a car.

The incident was the latest in a string of violent crimes to have occurred in the Stourbridge area this week and has only served to further worry people in Lye who told a community meeting on Tuesday of their concerns about the lack of police in the area.

Kamran Razzaq, who is standing as the Conservative candidate for Lye and Stourbridge North in the forthcoming local election, said: “The community is worried about incidents like this, we already have so many problems in Lye and such occurrences do not help.”

The incident happened just hours after Stourbridge MP Margot James admitted she thinks the police need more resources and that diverting officers from the town to other parts of the borough “may have been a step too far”.

She said: “I quite understand how worried people are and I share those concerns.

“I do think the police need more resources, and I think that the Home Secretary is winning that argument, with more money announced for the 2019/20 funding settlement – almost £1bn in fact, and a 4.4 per cent increase in real terms for West Midlands Police. I also support efforts being made to secure more money from the Treasury during the review of public spending coming up this year, and I know Ministers are listening and willing to invest in police capacity.

“There are fewer police in Stourbridge than there used to be. It may be that the decision to divert more police to areas in the borough with significantly greater levels of crime than Stourbridge, was a step too far.

“That is one of the reasons I am meeting the Police and Crime Commissioner later this month, to lobby for a rebalancing.”

Investigations were tody continuing to establish the circumstances around the fight in Lye.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police, quoting log number 2034 of 15/02, via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight, call 101 anytime or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.