The so-called 'GTA stabbing' reported to have taken place outside a GameStation store in Croydon, East London, had absolutely nothing to do with Grand Theft Auto, a GamesStation source has confirmed to GamesRadar.

Our source revealed that the account of a witness appeared to contradict the knee-jerk news published yesterday, which claimed the man stabbed was a member of the queue waiting for the store's midnight launch of GTA IV.

"The victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game," our source told us, "and GameStation is confident that he was not a GameStation customer, neither was he a part of the queue outside the Croydon store".

(Source: Metro, Wednesday April 30, 2008)

Our source suggests that the incident was triggered by a number of beer-addled pub-goers, who poured out onto the street opposite the store where punters were queuing. The crowd of drinkers were hurling light-hearted jibes at the gamers, when drinkers leaving a nearby pub also joined in with the shouting. Our source believes that police will find the stabbing resulted from a member of the pub crowd or someone walking past the GameStation queue assuming the insults were directed at them.

Yesterday many news websites ran stories claiming that "a man was stabbed repeatedly in a queue of fans waiting to buy [GTA IV]" (Source: DailyMail.co.uk), and the incident is covered again in this morning's Metro newspaper, under the headline "GTA violence kicks off ...in queue for the game". This, according to our source, is most certainly not the case.

 
(Source: The Sun, Wednesday April 30, 2008)

In fact, according to our source, it seems that the stabbing incident itself did not even take place near the GameStation store, as reported by many news outlets, but nearly a quarter of a mile away in the area of East Croydon Station.