Carnival-goers are preparing to dance into the night as Europe’s biggest street party reaches its climax.

Thousands of revellers turned out to enjoy the Notting Hill Carnival, flooding the streets with colour, costumes, dancing and music.

A heavy police presence was also visible after three people were stabbed on Sunday.

Some attendees were made to walk through metal-detecting “knife arches” as they arrived at the west London event.

Officer standing in pairs were dotted along the streets, while a police helicopter hovered above throughout the day.

Officers also walked through the crowds in groups, ready to respond to reports of trouble.

Thousands of people thronged the area for Adults’ Day on Monday afternoon, billed as the culmination of the annual celebration of Caribbean culture and history.

After months of preparation, dancers showed off their flamboyant costumes and floats blasted music for the spectators who blew whistles and horns.

Participants in the adults' parade
Participants in the Adults’ Day parade (Lucy North/PA)

Away from the parade route, vendors cooked up a mix of food on open barbecues, while sound systems played everything from rare groove to house, samba, reggae and ska.

Earlier on Monday, a senior Metropolitan Police officer said he was “tired of saying the same words every year” after a woman attending the carnival with her child was stabbed.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, who is in charge of the policing operation for the event, said his officers “very narrowly avoided a fatality” and are “tired of seeing crime scenes” at the street party.

Calling for carnival-goers to report crime, Mr Adelekan said: “Yesterday we saw the first day marred by unacceptable violence.

“Three people were stabbed and we only very narrowly avoided a fatality.”

The 32-year-old woman remains in a critical condition in hospital, the force said.

Police officers in Ladbroke Grove
Police officers in Ladbroke Grove (Lucy North/PA)

A 29-year-old man who was also stabbed remains in hospital in a non-life-threatening condition, and a second man, aged 24, who was stabbed discharged himself from hospital.

There were 103 arrests on Sunday and 18 officers were assaulted, Scotland Yard said.

The carnival is billed by organisers as “the greatest community-led event on the planet”.

Posting on X, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, described the carnival as “part of the very fabric of our city and an amazing way to bring communities together”.

Around a million people were expected to attend over the bank holiday weekend with about 7,000 officers on duty.

The annual celebration has been running for more than 50 years.