Stabbing and arrest shocks residents of Chiswell on Portland

The attack happened in a residential area of the isle in the middle of the day yesterday - and led to armed police swooping on the area to hunt for a suspect and an air ambulance being scrambled.

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the incident in Chiswell, Portland at 12.51pm yesterday.

Residents in Chiswell say they saw the victim holding a t-shirt to his body before being treated by paramedics.

Police set up a cordon next to a b&b in Chiswell with the cordon stretching across to a neighbouring property and also the entrance to a private drive next to the b&b leading up towards Chesil Beach.

A man was arrested in connection with the incident.

Read more: Arrest after man stabbed on Portland

(Image: Cristiano Magaglio)

Chiswell resident Soren Steele was shocked by the stabbing.

He said: "There was a man holding a t-shirt and someone put a pressure bandage on it.

"Police turned up, the ambulance turned up. The armed police were walking up and down.

"I was very shocked to see this. I have grown up here on Portland for the last 20 years and I have never seen this, especially not right outside my road."

Chris Bird, the landlord of the Little Ship Inn in Chiswell, said: "We saw a couple of police cars and what have you but everything seems calm now.

"It just brings it all back to home. It is not a nice thing to have on Portland because normally it's so quiet."

The police cordon (Image: Cristiano Magaglio)

Another resident said the police were present in almost every street.

He said: "We heard a bit of commotion, though I don't know what they were saying.

"There was angry yelling. I came down from the town later and there were police everywhere. Pretty much every street I would go down had a police car at the end of it."

Another resident added: "We just came back from walking the dog and saw a man getting into an ambulance. It's ridiculous, what is the world coming to."

One resident said: "It's usually so quiet out here. This is just so out of the blue."

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "At 12.51pm on Monday, August 5, Dorset Police received a report that a man had sustained suspected stab wounds following an assault in Chiswell on Portland.

"Emergency services attended and the man was taken to hospital for treatment to injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.

"A man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

"It is believed that the victim and the arrested man are known to one another."

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 12.53pm to an incident in Chiswell. We sent a double-crewed land ambulance, an air ambulance, and an operations officer to the scene. We conveyed one patient by land ambulance to Dorset County Hospital."