T in the Park stabbing victim knifed as he tried to help woman

Published on Monday 14 July 2008 10:20

A YOUNG man stabbed at Scotland's biggest music festival was an "innocent victim" who was attacked as he tried to protect a female friend, police said today.

The 22-year-old was stabbed 11 times, suffering eight wounds to the body and three to the head.

He is in intensive care after the attack at T in the Park in Balado, Kinross-shire, in the early hours of yesterday, but police said he was making good progress.

The stabbing victim was found in the campsite at around 12.40am, and police believe two men were behind the assault in the blue zone of the site.

In a separate incident, a 32-year-old man was found dead in his tent at the festival site.

The stabbing at T in the Park came as Labour called for more youth facilities to tackle teenage gangs and knife crime.

The party's candidate for the Glasgow East by-election, Margaret Curran, spoke out ahead of a visit to a project working with youngsters in the city's east end.

She said: "If we want to get serious about tackling knife crime and antisocial behaviour, we need to offer young people something to do.

"I won't be one of those people who talks down to every child in the east end, but we have to acknowledge that we have a problem with gangs of neds who are making decent, hard-working people's lives a misery. We need to face up to that challenge."