A 17-year-old has been arrested after a "fight" involving weapons broke out in Southend city centre. 

Essex Police seized a knife as well as a baseball bat on Friday night in Warrior Square after reports of a large group of young people being involved in a disturbance. 

Residents have told the Echo they witnessed a group of teenagers drinking, engaging in anti-social behaviour, before a fight broke out at roughly 8.30pm. 

According to witnesses multiple weapons were seen during the brawl. 

Police have confirmed a baseball bat as well as a "flick knife" were recovered from the scene and a 17-year-old boy remains in custody for questioning. 

One resident who wanted to stay anonymous said: "Every week there is violence, and it is a serious worry for residents and people who live close by.

“It started kicking off, then branches were being broken off and they split into two groups squaring up to each other.

“Police are meant to be patrolling that park and it isn’t happening enough - something serious could end up happening if it continues.”

Sgt Carly Boitoult, of Southend Community Policing Team, said: “We are investigating several reports of anti-social behaviour linked to this disturbance and will be progressing our enquiries this weekend.

“This behaviour causes understandable concern to the community and our fast response to this incident, including making an important arrest and seizing weapons, shows we are taking this issue seriously.

“Throughout the summer, the busiest areas of Southend are patrolled by dedicated teams of officers under Operation Union.

“This weekend will be covered by this operation and you can expect to see officers out on high-visibility patrols.

“We’re confident, and the figures show, incidents of disorder and violence remain rare. But one incident is too many and we’re always alert to such reports.

“I would urge people to keep contacting us and telling us about any issues they are seeing.

“Where incidents such as this arise, we will act and we will use powers available to us to protect the public.”

Overall crime continues to fall in Southend.

There were 1,500 fewer crimes reported across the district in the last year (a 6.5 percent fall), with 1,000 fewer violent crimes (a 12 percent fall) and 80 fewer sexual offences (a 10 percent fall).

Knife crime is down by more than 11 percent in the last year, while anti-social behaviour reports are down 22 percent.

Under Operation Union this year, we’ve made more than 75 arrests and carried out more than 230 stop searches, with more than 40 percent leading to illegal items being discovered, and we’ve seen violence and anti-social behaviour reduce.