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Shocked residents of the British capital called for an end to a surge in violence that now includes six teenagers stabbed in the space of 90 minutes.
The incidents came days after London’s murder rate surpassed New York City’s for the first time. At least 55 people have been killed in London in 2018, over 30 of them in stabbings.
Police in the Tower Hamlets borough of east London said Thursday that two 15-year-old boys were taken to the hospital with serious injuries after they were stabbed at about 6 p.m. local time Thursday. A 16-year-old who was treated for minor knife injuries was arrested for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, and another male was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, police said.
In a separate incident in the Newham borough of east London, police said three juveniles were arrested after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed. The victim is in serious but stable condition.
Elsewhere in the city, a teenager was taken to hospital when he was stabbed in Ealing Broadway, west London, and a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in Westferry, east London, but suffered no serious injury.
Also Thursday, a crowd gathered at a train station in the east London area of Hackney, near the scene of the fatal stabbing Wednesday of Israel Ogunsola, 18, to commemorate victims of violence.
Local youth worker Janette Collins, 58, told the London Evening Standard: “We need to stop this. Everybody keeps asking the same question, but the answers are in the young people. We the organisations are only trying to come out, to come together, and we are here to talk to young people and try to stop the violence.”
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SOURCE: USA Today, Jane Onyanga-Omara
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