Father describes knife incident with teenagers at Riga's Barona Street playground

A Riga resident named Rafiks has shared on Facebook his account of an incident at the large playground on Krišjāņa Barona Street, where he was with his daughter on the evening of 6 October at around 8 p.m.

How the conflict began

According to his account, a group of teenagers nearby was swearing loudly. He asked them twice to remember they were at a children's playground, and approached a third time to repeat the remark. The situation grew tense: an adult member of the group came at him aggressively, and Rafiks slapped him.

Later, he writes, one of the girls ran over with a knife and tried to hand it to that young man. Rafiks demanded that the knife be put down. Other adults at the playground came to separate the sides, and he warned them that one of the youths had a knife.

Waiting for police

Rafiks says he tried to leave with his daughter, but the group surrounded them and would not let them go. He went to the playground's administration and asked them to call the police, at about 8:15 p.m. After roughly half an hour, with no police on site, he called again and was told there were other calls and he would have to wait his turn. About 40 minutes later he called once more and received a similar reply.

He then asked his wife to come and collect their daughter, while he stayed to wait for officers. By about 10:10 p.m. police had still not arrived, and had not contacted him about the incident by the time of his post.

Appeal to parents

Rafiks stresses that the main issue is children's safety. Playground staff told him the group regularly spends time there. He urges parents to be vigilant at public playgrounds and says he intends to contact police again.