“You Go Out Sometimes and it’s like Beirut in Town.”

That’s how emergency care practitioner William Berkley describes the regular scene of drunks Brits on the streets of Plymouth hitting, falling and fighting with each other:

By 1.30am the police cells are almost full and the city centre’s ‘field hospital’ is busy dealing with the fallout from Union Street. The nightclub strip is usually quiet in the early hours of a Monday morning, but bank holiday drinking means an upsurge in crime and injuries. Ambulance staff and police use the Shekinah Mission, on Bath Street behind the Pavilions, as a base to help deal with people at the scene.

[…]

The emergency services juggle resources around fights breaking out as bars close, head injuries from assaults and drunken falls, and criminal damage. Staff on duty say people drinking all day on bank holiday has a “massive impact” on crime and health — as well as hitting the public purse due to a need for extra resources.

[…]

William worries resources are taken away from people in need. […] “There are sometimes genuinely poorly patients who have to be held back, they have to wait, because you go out sometimes and it’s like Beirut in town.”

I would have said that something like, “it looks like a circus is in town”. Unless William believes we wear red rubber noses or he’s taking about the band, I really have no idea what he is trying to describe. Nevertheless, a looks like Beirut certificate will be dispatched.