Teen thugs stab fleeing boys aged 10 and 12

The two friends were attacked in the middle of the afternoon yards from their Southwark homes after they refused to hand over their belongings to two teenage robbers.

Witnesses told how the older boys, believed to be in their mid-teens, homed in on the friends as they made their way down Penrose Street in Walworth just before 3pm on Saturday.

Police sources said their attackers had waited for them to turn off the busier Walworth Road before launching their attack.

They added that there was a scuffle and the victims received minor stab and slash wounds to the chest and stomach.

The older children ran off and nothing was stolen.

The 10-year-old was treated overnight in hospital and was released yesterday morning.

His friend was discharged on the same day as the attack. A police source said: "Luckily they were not seriously hurt but it could have been much worse."

A young mother living in a block of flats in the street where the attack happened said: "I don't let my son play out, I'm too worried about what could happen to him. It's a shame but that's how things are now."

The boys were attacked in a London borough being targeted by the Met as a knife crime hotspot with dozens of extra patrols and "stop-and-searches" of anyone suspected of carrying a weapon.

The crackdown follows an explosion in knife and youth crime in London which has claimed 16 teenagers' lives so far this year, 11 of them in knife attacks.

People living near Saturday's attack said muggings and robberies in that stretch of Penrose Street were a "daily occurrence" and said they were concerned by the lack of police patrols.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said: "There are things going on all the time here. It's so bad now, people have stopped reporting them. I don't, because when you do you never hear anything back from the police." A Met spokeswoman said: "We were called by the London Ambulance Service to reports of a stabbing in Penrose Street. Two friends were taken to different south London hospitals. It appears the boys were subjected to an attempted robbery after two black males in their teens approached them." The Met said anybody concerned about the way their area was patrolled should complain at their nearest police station.

A 15-year-old was arrested in connection with the stabbings and released on police bail.