The stabbing of a teenager is believed to have taken place in Blackwood Park in Streetly with the injured boy staggering to Blackwood Pharmacy to raise the alarm

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A community in Sutton Coldfield has been rocked by a stabbing incident in a local park after a teen refused to hand over his mobile phone to a man. The stabbing took place in Blackwood Park in Streetly at around 5pm on Thursday (July 14).

Police and ambulance crews rushed to the scene after the boy, said to be 17, ‘staggered’ in the Blackwood Pharmacy in Blackwood Road. A staff member at the pharmacy confirmed the boy walked in around 5pm and they ‘took him in and cleaned him up’ They called an ambulance which took 10 or 15 minutes to arrive.

Witnesses had reported a ‘lad bleeding with his top off’ and police in the area searching the park. West Midlands Ambulance Service sent rapid response vehicles with a paramedic officer, a Medical Emergency Response Intervention Team (MERIT) trauma doctor, a critical care paramedic, as well as a regular ambulance.

Read more : Boy staggers into pharmacy to say: 'I've been stabbed'

A spokeswoman for the service said: “We were called at 5:04pm to a patient who’d self-presented at a pharmacy on Blackwood Road, Streetly. Our first crew arrived at 5.23pm, and crews found a teenage boy who’d reported being stabbed. He was treated for injuries not believed to be serious and he was conveyed to hospital for further treatment. We left the scene at 5.47pm”.

A number of shops were open in the parade at the time of the stabbing, which includes a newsagents, butchers, chip shop, accountants, general store, two hairdressers, a Post Office as well as the pharmacy.

A staff member at Blackwood Butchers who lives above the shops said he saw ‘three or four police vehicles, as well as two rapid response ambulances and an ambulance’ arrive. He watched a police dogs team go into Blackwood Park.

He was shocked at the stabbing which he had heard ‘was jealousy over a mobile phone’ and added he has bleed kits for his staff in case of mishaps with knives. A staff member at Taylors News at the end of the parade said she had also heard the stabbing was ‘over a mobile phone’ - a fact confirmed by West Midlands Police this afternoon.

Blackwood Fish Bar had just opened for its evening trade and a staff member there said nothing like this has happened in 20 years. While a colleague said he saw the police cars outside the pharmacy but not much more as the chippy ‘was busy’. One customer at Streetly Stores said she had heard the boy had been discharged and ‘was now at home’.

Blackwood Park is flanked by two primary schools, where on Friday morning the noise of children playing outside echoed through the trees. It has a children’s play area, basketball court, tennis courts and a compact wooded area, with houses all around.

Dog walkers were meandering through the park, but there was no sign of any stabbing, no police tape or police presence. One dog walker who lived nearby had not heard anything about it.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "We’re investigating after a teenager was attacked in a park in Streetly yesterday, July 14. At around 5.10pm, the 17-year-old boy was approached by a man in Blackwood Park who told him to hand over his phone.

"When the teenager refused, the man stabbed him in the back. He walked to Blackwood Pharmacy for help and was taken to hospital where his injuries are not thought to be serious."

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