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Man, 21, is killed in weekend of London stabbings
Rob Singh and Mark Blunden07.07.08
A man died today after being stabbed during another weekend of knifings in the capital.
The 21-year-old victim suffered wounds to the arm and chest following an argument in the early hours of this morning. Scotland Yard said they were called by the London Ambulance Service after paramedics found two men with injuries.
Police arrived at the scene in Durrant Street in Bethnal Green just after 3am. The victim was taken to the Royal London Hospital where he died an hour later. A spokesman for the Met said the other man, who is in 20s, was treated for head injuries. He was then arrested as part of the investigation after being discharged from hospital and is being questioned at an east London police station.
Only a day earlier a man was injured after being stabbed at a bus stop in Putney. The victim, in his twenties, was attacked while waiting for a bus at 5am in Putney Heath after getting into a fight with a youth carrying a knife.
Forensic teams have searched the area looking for clues and residents said they were now too scared to leave home after dark.
One resident, whose house overlooks the scene, said: "These things are happening everywhere now. There are so many knives around. Something like this happens every day. I am not too surprised and now I will not go on the train late at night.
"After 10pm I will take a taxi because I do not want to walk on the streets."
A Met spokesman said the victim was in a stable condition in hospital and two men have been arrested in connection with the attack. Both have been taken to a south London police station where they remain in custody.
He said: "We have nothing as regards to motive and no information on any suspects. No arrests have been made."
Police are also hunting a gang of teenagers after two security guards were stabbed while chasing a gang of suspected teenage shoplifters in the West End.
They were trying to catch eight boys who had allegedly stolen clothes from the Nike Town in Oxford Circus. Only one of the suspects produced a knife and was responsible for the injuries to both men who were stabbed outside the store.
The knifeman lost his T-shirt in the scuffle on Saturday evening and was last seen running shirtless up Oxford Street towards Tottenham Court Road.
One guard, 33, was treated in hospital for stab wounds to the left arm and lower back but has been discharged.
His colleague, 21, was treated at the scene after being knifed in the leg and another female guard, 22, was also punched in the face.
All eight of the suspects escaped despite blanket CCTV coverage of the West End.
Police say the gang are in their early to mid-teens and no arrests have been made.
Reader views (13)
There is something inherently wrong.
The same problem exists in other parts of the world.
Strong leadership and harsh punishment is definitely needed to stop this barbaric behaviour.
I believe, as Jo mentioned, the hip-hop junk that is spewed out these days topped with drugs is also playing a part in this.
I posted the comments below in another related article as I've followed this issue as it makes the news here in South Africa as well.
At 31 now with a son of 7, I can't imagine what the parents of the victims are going through.
Thousands of people leave SA fearing the safety of their kids and I am considering the same.
Unless someone takes a strong stance there now, it can easily become as nasty as it is here.
Living in South Africa is sheer hell these days as the crime is getting worse daily. Now we have to live in townhouse complexes with 8 foot walls, electric fences, 24 hour guards, armed guard patrols etc. as people here are shot/raped/robbed/assaulted at an alarming rate.
The problem in London needs to be nipped in the bud before those knives are exchanged for firearms as we have here.
The last thing you need is honest people having to carry weapons to protect themselves.
Good Luck
- Rakesh Singh, Johannesburg, South Africa
Lets face it,they need to be punished hard to learn. You can try so much but how many more killings can we take? We need hard punishment for them to learn. All this gangster rubbish is stupid and needs to end!
- Apprentice 2008, UK
I heard someone bragging about carrying a knife on the bus the other day and what excuses they could give if they were stopped by the police. They were absolutely convinced they could get away with it and here lies the problem! Tough law is what is needed. Parents involved - schools involved - jobs involved - naming and shaming involved (although unfortunately some will see this as cool, unless they are punished good and hard, all this behaviour should not be tolerated. Also there may be black on black crime but you only have to watch Panorama etc to see that youth crime all over the country is out of control - kicking someone's head in and beating them to death - all are equally bad. Society itself needs changing but it stems from the top and the politically correct crowd probably instigated things in the first place by stopping proper discipline. We had discipline when younger - I don't agree with child abuse and bullying but if you don't have the discipline then the bullying will stem from child to child instead of from adults.
- Jackie, London
I have immigrated to another country: what does that tell you...The UK (London) in particular is bad now and it might help if the police were to at least get on the tubes and add some security, what else are they doing?
- Bob The Builder, Not the UK
At last the Evening Standard has allowed a letter that tells the truth: Time To Be Honest's, from London. He says what we all know, that this is black people stabbing others. If this was on the other side of the coin the PC brigade would be calling us all racists. As it is I just sigh and say "Our poor country"
- Lawence, London, England
Amazing the parents of these teenagers did not control them to stay at home in stead of roaming in the street and committing sever crime. Arrange jobs or keep them busy in daily life, it is responsibility of community or the parents.
- M Amjad, London
The problem is the kids do not have any positive roll-models to look up to! All the youth centres get shut down, so the kids have no where to play Hungry Hippos & they get bored...bless there cotton hoodies! At least alcohol is now banned on public transport, that really showed em who's boss didn't it people!
- Jimmy, Camden
''People are very helpless, I don't know what do the authorities wait for to prevent these incidents. I think the penalties are not deterrent''.
Here's a novel idea that might work, why don't they give descriptions of the attackers? Or would that be considered racist & politically incorrect?
- Johnny, Glasgow, Scotland
London has gone to the dogs. The government needs to get tough with these thugs moving with knives.
- Forbes, England
Isn't it time people spoke out about this without getting labelled, the truth is that much of this Knife crime comes from one particular sector of the population, be they immigrants or Born in the UK, there is still a massive civilization update that they need.
Most of these stabbings are done by Black on Black or Black on anyone...
I am not saying its racist, but i am saying that considering the Black population of the UK is supposed to be at 12-15% the youth are causing 90% of the problems on the streets. Where they don't tend to get drunk and have that side of the behavioural curve, they do seem hell bent on knife crime, gang crime and stabbing--with little or no regard for life.
The black community need to stand up- March and be outspoken- they cant claim this is racist because its the way it is and true- look at the results- its every other day in London especially.
The parents need to liaise with the Police if they know there children are going out with knives- they must take action because its becoming a ware zone-
I grew up with Mods and Rockers taking over seaside resorts on Bank holidays- football violence never has hit the heights of the kids today.
All communities need to act but especially the Black community- it effects them more than anyone- you cant continually blame society saying lack of opportunity-
the Eastern Europeans are coming here to work- maybe its time for certain groups to look within themselves, stop blaming everyone else and act.
- Time To Be Honest, London, England
Wow! All that CCTV in Oxford Street and they still didn't manage to catch them. I think it might be time for a review as cameras only record crime and don't prevent it. (just put on a hoody and you have it)
- Jimbob, Kensington
Seriously what is going on? This is insane! Something has to be done about this, it's a joke that this seems to becoming fashionable between all these kids, I don't know what to blame, hip hop videos or drugs or both. I mean I am 27 and I never heard of all this when I was younger, I don't get what's kicked it off? We need to find out what is the cause before we can sort it out, but it's getting scarily far too much of a daily occurrence to delay any action on it!
- Jo, Surrey, UK
People are very helpless, I don't know what do the authorities wait for to prevent these incidents. I think the penalties are not deterrent.
- Olafssen, iceland
