134 London killings in 2018 is highest in decade

THIRTY-NINE people were arrested yesterday after a man was left in a critical condition after being stabbed following an argument in the street.

The victim, believed to be in his mid-30s, was chased by a group of young men and women in Hammersmith, West London, in the early hours yesterday.

They shouted, “Get him, get him”, as one pulled out a knife and plunged it into the victim’s chest, witnesses claimed.

Police made the arrests at a nearby house party after lining up the 39 suspects in the street and interrogating them separately. The group, believed to be aged between 16 and 20, were held on suspicion of attempted murder.

The victim last night remained critical, PLEDGE Cressida Dick THE number of killings in London is at its highest level in a decade.

Rising gun and knife crime has brought homicides to 134 this year, the most since 2008 when 154 people died, a yearly rise of 15%.

Twenty-four of the victims killed this year were aged 19 or under.

Of those, 18 were stabbed to death, five were shot and one died as a result of a head injury.

This year is the worst on record for knife murders of young people in Britain as a whole, with 37 youths stabbed to death.

But last month, the Met Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, said the force has turned the tide on violent crime in London, with the number of under-25s being stabbed down 13% year on year.

Ms Dick says street violence is her “number one priority” and that the last year was “challenging”.

She said: “We’re trying our very hardest to reduce violence on the streets as much as we can. I do see some cautious room for optimism. Young people being stabbed is a key metric for me, and it falling.

“I think we will need to keep up our efforts on that next year, it will remain a very high priority.”

But London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, says it could take a decade to tackle the causes of violent crime.