Third killing in 48 hours fuels violence fears

A MAN was stabbed to death near a busy high street last night in the third killing in 48 hours within a three-mile radius in north-west London.

The killing is the 68th murder investigation opened by the Metropolitan Police so far this year.

Government figures today revealed the number of homicides went up by almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the 12 months to April on the previous year. Overall crime rose five per cent in the capital, compared to a one per cent increase across the rest of the country. Last night witnesses heard

“shouting and cries of pain” as the victim in his mid-thirties was attacked in Victoria Road, off Kilburn High Road at 10.30pm.

Police found the victim collapsed next to the side entrance of a McDonald’s. He was taken to a central London hospital and pronounced dead half an hour later.

On Wednesday Ahmed Yasin-Ali, 18, was stabbed to death in a car park by Harrow Road in Maida Hill.

Two arrests have been made by detectives investigating the shooting of a 27-year-old outside a wake in Windrush Road, Harlesden, at 3am yesterday. The three killings are not believed to be connected, police said, but have fuelled concern of an upsurge in street violence as lockdown is eased.

The ONS data published today also revealed that the number of killings involving a blade rose from 67 to 86 in the capital in the year to April, a 28 per cent increase on 2018.

Total offences rose by five per cent, with robberies and thefts both up by 15 per cent, and drug offences 23 per cent higher. In hopeful signs, the Met recorded a 5 per cent fall in home burglaries, and a 16 per cent drop in possession of weapons, suggesting operations to take knives off the streets were working.