A teenager charged following a "fight" in Warrior Square Park which saw two weapons being recovered by police.

Police were alerted to a disturbance involving a group of young people in Warrior Square Park, Southend, culminating in a further call to us at around 8.50pm on Friday August 23.

A 17-year-old male, from Southend, who can’t be named because of his age, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon.

He has since been charged with breaching a Community Protection Notice and will appear at Southend Magistrates' Court on Tuesday September 24.

It was reported knives were seen.

After this call, officers were on the scene within three minutes, by 8.53pm, carrying out enquiries and detaining a teenage boy after recovering a baseball bat.

A knife, described as a flick knife, was also recovered from the scene.

Our investigation into the disturbance is continuing and we continue to progress enquiries.

Such notices are useful tools for preventing and cracking down on persistent offending.

They can prohibit defendants from entering certain areas or else prohibit specific anti-social activities.

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.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "Anyone with information on this incident should contact us as soon as possible.  "You can let us know by submitting a report on our website or by using our online Live Chat service which is available 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week.  "It can be found at the bottom right of our homepage at www.essex.police.uk.  "Visit www.essex.police.uk/digital101 to find out more about our website reporting services.

"Alternatively, you can call us on 101.  "Please cite reference  42/129506/24."