Ex-TRNC resident calls for an end to London knife crime after fatal stabbing of her son

A DISTRAUGHT former TRNC resident has demanded an end to gang and knife crime in London after her teenage son was murdered in the British capital — the latest in a dozen fatal stabbings there since New Year.

Demonstrators who turned out in support of Emine Özcan voiced accusations of “racism” against police and local authorities.

Hasan Özcan, 19, died after being found with multiple stab wounds on a street in Barking on February 3.

The oldest of three children, he was studying criminology at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent. His family had settled in North Cyprus in 1976 from Gaziantep, Turkey, before emigrating to the UK in the 1990s.

In emotional scenes last Friday, family and friends of the Özcans gathered outside Barking Town Hall to call for an end to “youth violence”.

Mrs Özcan told reporters: “My son didn’t deserve this. They didn’t have the right to kill his dreams with one knife . . . I want to stop the gangs, stop the knives, stop the killing.”

Barking MP Margaret Hodge was among those attending, along with council figures, and expressed condolences to the family.

Claims of racism were voiced against police and local politicians, with one protester suggesting: “If it was a white person that got killed you would see police everywhere and helicopters up.”

The council said it was looking into the functioning of CCTV cameras in the area and would be upgrading street lights.