London vows to fight knife crime after tragic weekend

LONDON: Britain’s knife-crime epidemic should be treated “like a disease”, interior minister Sajid Javid said, as the government announced a summit following another weekend of stabbings.

The issue was in the spotlight again on Tuesday after 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was killed in an east London parkas she sat with friends, and Yousef Ghaleb Makki, also 17, died near Manchester – the ninth and 10th teenagers to be knifed to death this year.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would hold a “summit in the coming days to explore what more we can do as a whole society to tackle this problem.

“A growing number of young people have lost their lives in a cycle of mindless violence that has shocked us all,” she told MPs.

“We will only defeat the scourge of violence if we understand and address the complex root causes,” she added, under pressure from main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He blames cuts to police forces for making the problem worse.

“If there are sufficient police numbers, can the prime minister please explain why yesterday the defence secretary was offering to send in the military to assist,” Corbyn asked.

“The police clearly do not have the resources to deal with it.”

Home Secretary Javid earlier held emergency talks with police chiefs, saying that “police resources are very important to deal with this”.

“I want serious violence to be treated by all parts of government, all parts of the public sector, like a disease,” he added. — AFP