Four killed in London New Year knife violence

LONDON: Four young men were stabbed to death in unrelated incidents in London on New Year’s Eve, while a fifth is in a critical condition in hospital, police said.

The unusually concentrated spate of violence will add to growing concerns about knife crime in the British capital, which is at its highest level for five years.

At least 80 people were killed in stabbings in London in 2017, more than half of them under the age of 25. Detectives launched four separate murder investigations into the overnight attacks, which took place away from the city centre, where more than 100,000 people had gathered to watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

An 18-year-old man was stabbed in Enfield, north London, late on Sunday evening, and later died in hospital. Five men have been arrested, police said. Earlier, at around 7.30pm (1930 GMT), a 20year-old man was stabbed in West Ham in east London, while in Tulse Hill, in the south, a 17-year-old boy was killed at around 10.40pm.

In the early hours of Monday morning, a 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed in Old Street, a busy area filled with bars and clubs east of the city centre. A second man in his 20s was hurt in the same incident, and was taken to hospital suffering critical stab injuries.

“It is heart-breaking that, at a time when so many of us are contemplating what lies ahead in 2018, four families are dealing with the grief of losing a loved one to senseless violence and the callous use of knives as lethal weapons,” said police commander Neil Jerome. — AFP