Stabbing over pay at Overbury site

Police were called to an Overbury site in London’s upmarket Belgravia yesterday morning (Monday) after a man working at the site was stabbed.

The incident occurred at 20 Chesham Place in Belgravia where Overbury is working on the £12m refurbishment of the former Sheraton Belgravia hotel, which is being renovated for new owner, US based Thompson Hotels Group.

Police told Building they were called to the site at 9:29am on Monday after a 20-year-old man had been stabbed in the shoulder.

The victim, thought to be a foreman or supervisor for one of the subcontractors working on the site, was taken to hospital by ambulance but released later the same day.

No arrests had been made when Building went to press but police said they were seeking a “lone suspect” who had fled the scene after the incident.

Sources at the site claimed the victim had been involved in a dispute over money on the previous Friday with another worker at the site related to work that had been carried out on the project.

In a statement the company said: “Overbury is aware of an incident that occurred on one of our sites today, 3 October 2011. The police are currently investigating the incident and as such we not in a position to comment or speculate about nature of the incident at this time. We will release further information when it is appropriate to do so.”

The hotel’s refurbishment was due to be completed earlier this year to enable it to open for business in the summer, but contractors are still on site.

One contractor said: “We’re there a lot longer than we thought we would be, it’s running on and on but is now getting close to completion.”

Thompson Hotel Group was unavailable for comment.