New Year stabbings leave four dead as London battles ‘scourge’ of knife violence

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In this March 23, 2017, file photo, police forensic officers work in Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament in London where a knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage, first driving a car into pedestrians then stabbing a police officer to death before being fatally shot by police. Photo: AP

Published: 9:42am, 2 Jan 2018Updated: 10:13pm, 2 Jan 2018

Four young men were stabbed to death at the turn of the year in London bringing the total number of fatal knife attacks in the capital to 80 in 2017 alone.

The killings – three on New Year’s Eve and a fourth on New Year’s Day – were all unrelated and occurred within a 15-hour period at locations in north, east and south London.

The three deaths on Sunday bring the total number of fatal stabbings in the capital in 2017 to 80, Scotland Yard confirmed. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has struggled to control knife crime during his term so far, said he will “work tirelessly in 2018 and beyond to stamp out this scourge”.

Victims in 2017 included five people stabbed to death in the London Bridge terrorist attack in June, and a police officer stabbed to death in the Westminster terror attack in March.

Last year was already the worst year for deaths of children and teenagers in England and Wales since 2009. As at the end of November, 35 people aged 19 or under in England and Wales had been stabbed to death. It was last higher in 2008 when 42 young people died as a result of an attack with a knife. Two of the victims of the most recent deaths were 18 and 17, while the other two men were both 20.

In this image provided by Gabriele Sciotto taken on June 3, 2017, one of the suspects in the London Bridge attack lies on the ground after being shot by police outside Borough Market. The attackers killed three victims by running them down in a van, then stabbed five to death, before police shot all the attackers dead. Photo: AP

Last month, Cressida Dick, Britain’s most senior police officer, said extra resources were needed to fight knife crime in the capital, describing her force and all public services as “stretched”.