Croydon stabbing ‘had nothing to do with GTA

A Gamestation source has responded to reports that a customer was stabbed as he waited in a queue to buy GTA IV in Croydon on Monday – claiming that the victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game”.

According to the source, the incident was likely to have been caused by drinkers in a local South London pub, which kicked its punters out as gamers stood in line.

The source added that the stabbing did not actually take place near the GameStation store, but nearly a quarter of a mile away in the area of East Croydon Station.

Yesterday’s Daily Mail reported: ‘The launch of the ultra-violent Grand Theft Auto IV video game descended into real-life horror when a man was stabbed repeatedly in a queue of fans waiting to buy it…

‘… It took place outside the Gamestation store in Croydon, South London, one of 40 stores which opened at midnight to sell the new game.’

The story was repeated in Metro and The Sun this morning.

The Gamestation source told GamesRadar: "The victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game – and GameStation is confident that he was not a GameStation customer; neither was he a part of the queue outside the Croydon store.”

UPDATE: A Gamestation spokesperson told MCV:

"Your story is an accurate depiction of what happened. There were two groups of people involved, neither of which were part of our queue. One group had come out of the pub and were verbally attacking people in the queue.

"The people in the queue were a bit bemused. Another group then came out of the same pub. An argument took place and the violence took place between these two groups.

"We had a memeber of staff outside who witnessed the whole thing and we have given a statement."
PIC: THE SUN