London has experienced its eighth murder in a week, after a man in his early twenties was stabbed at the Stratford Centre in the east of the city yesterday.
Though paramedics tried to save him, he died from his injuries an hour later.
The stabbings have taken place between March 14 and March 20 in the north, east and west of the city. On March 14, Lyndon Davis, an eighteen-year-old footballer for Dagenham United, was stabbed close to his home in Chadwell Heath, east London.
The same day Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was shot in Walthamstow, north-east London. He was shot in the chest whilst in his car and died en-route to hospital.
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On March 17th, Russell Jones, 23, was shot and stabbed in Enfield, North London. The University of Hertfordshire student and a friend were victims of an unprovoked attack in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The following day, an as-of-yet-unnamed 37-year-old was fatally stabbed in the borough of Hackney close to the River Lea, while another man (also unnamed) was found dead in a hotel in Hounslow, a borough in West London.
The following day a 48-year-old took himself to hospital with serious stab wounds, but was pronounced dead less than an hour later. Two men (one in his teens and another his mid-twenties) from Middlesex have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
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An eighth man, also in his forties, was stabbed in Walthamstow on March 19th and died. Though the murders point to a worrying rise in crime in the English capital, they are all unconnected.
As The Metro reports, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Londoners need to pull together to tackle this issue. From community weapon sweeps, proactive operations that happen daily and engagement with schools, Met officers are working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as part of our firm commitment to reducing knife crime amongst young people.
"We need to find out why some young people think it is acceptable to carry knives, and this is where community organisations and local initiatives, charities, schools and educators, youth workers and families all have an important role to play in changing this mindset."
Though London has a relatively low crime rate for a city of its size, it has risen in recent years, as has crime in England and Wales generally. As reported in The Guardian, there was a 13 percent rise in police-reported offences in the two countries last year.
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