A murder epidemic is sweeping London. On Sunday, an unnamed man in his 20s became the 12th person in just 19 days to be gunned down or stabbed to death in the capital
A murder epidemic is sweeping London. On Sunday, an unnamed man in his 20s became the 12th person in just 19 days to be gunned down or stabbed to death in the capital
A teenager is fighting for his life after being stabbed on the streets of London as the British capital's murder rate soared above that of New York.

The 16-year-old boy is the latest victim of violent crime after an incident in Bow, east London, at about 6.05pm on Sunday night.

It is thought the teen was stabbed near a parade of shops just off the A12 and witnesses described seeing two people being stretchered away from the scene.

The teenage victim was in a critical condition last night and two men were arrested.

Weeks of carnage on the streets is beginning to take its toll on residents and a mother-of-two who drove past the carnage said: 'Too much s*** happening in this area.

'Every day there's someone getting hurt or killed. Can't wait to move away from this hopeless, horrific, disastrous place.'

The area was cordoned off as around 20 police vehicles descended upon the shops, which include a newsagent and a fried chicken take-away.

The arrested men have been taken into custody at an east London police station.

It comes as the past two months of bloodshed in London has seen the city overtake New York's murder rate, official police figures show, as Scotland Yard battles a 38 per cent surge in killings since 2014.

Fifteen people were killed in London in February, compared to 14 in New York.

And the trend looks set to continue, with 22 killings in London in March - one more than the city on the other side of the Atlantic, where urban violence has long been prevalent.

The murder epidemic continued on Sunday when Devoy Stapleton, 20, was knifed to death on his way home from a night out at 1am in Wandsworth. It is the 31st fatal stabbing in London this year.

Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course, but the victim's next-of-kin have been informed
Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course, but the victim's next-of-kin have been informed
Police were called after he collapsed in a pool of blood at 1.10am just a street away from his home in Wandsworth, on a residential road near the Common where homes fetch over £1million.

He died at the scene less than an hour later.

Last night his cousin Billie Shuter said: 'My little cousin was murdered last night, my heart is broken. RIP Devoy Stapleton.'

His family who live just a street away from the murder scene were too upset to speak, but a large crowd gathered last night at the scene to leave flowers and tributes.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody at a west London police station.

The surge in killings comes as rates of rape, robbery, and violent offences in London have already eclipsed those in New York.

While both London and New York have populations of around 8 million, Office of National Statistics figures published in October suggest you are almost six times more likely to be burgled in the British capital than in the US city, and one and a half times more likely to be robbed.

London also has almost three times the number of reported rapes, but until February this year the murder rate in New York remained higher.

David Green, of the think-tank Civitas, said: 'There is now a higher risk of being a victim of violent crime in London than New York, which is pretty staggering. There is no way in which the police can be expected to deal with a bigger population in London and a lot of gang activity if you keep cutting budgets and reducing officer numbers.

'If you look at cities like New York and Boston, they have poured a lot of resources into diverting people from gang activity and putting more officers on the street.

'We have reduced visible policing - it's the exact opposite.'

Lyndon Davis, 18, the youngest to have been killed in March, was found suffering from a single stab wound in Chadwell Heath, east London on March 14.

Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was killed the same evening as he sat in a stationary car in Essex Close, Walthamstow.

Russell Jones, 23, was ambushed outside shops near Ponders End station, in Enfield and stabbed and shot to death.

Father-of-two Tyrone Silcott, 42, died from knife wounds on March 18 after a St Patrick's Day party.

It is alleged the car mechanic got into a row over two girls at a party in Homerton and was attacked.

The total number of London murders, even excluding victims of terrorism, has risen by 38 per cent since 2014.

In contrast, the number of murders in New York have fallen by 87 per cent since its 1990s peak.

Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick said social media sites could be to blame, claiming disputes on online messaging boards and video sites were escalating to murder 'within minutes'.

'There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly,' she said.

She also wants to increase the use of stop and search, which fell by up to two thirds when Theresa May was Home Secretary.

Scotland Yard (32,000 officers) and the New York City Police Department (40,000) both have budgets of £3 billion a year.

But the NYPD has introduced a zero tolerance approach to low-level crime and has flooded problem areas with patrols.

Critics say Scotland Yard has done the exact opposite in the face of budget cuts, as it has 'screened out' a number of low-level offences and moved officers from neighbourhood policing to pursue historic child abuse inquiries, terrorism and other high-profile inquiries.

(Read more here)