Knife crime rises in London, murders now more than in New York

London now has more murders than New York, first time in modern history in February as the capital endured a dramatic surge in knife crime. Fifteen people were murdered in the London, against 14 in New York. Both cities have almost exactly the same population.

London murders for March are also likely to exceed or equal New York’s.

By late last night there had been 22 killings in the England capital, according to the Metropolitan police, against 21 in the U.S. city.

Eight Londoners were murdered between March 14 and March 20 alone and the total number of London murders, even excluding victims of terrorism, has risen by 38% since 2014.

This morning, another person became a victim. A 20-year-old man was stabbed to death moments.

Fatal stabbings in England and Wales are now at their highest levels since 2011 – growing by 12 per cent in the year ending December 2017.

The report comes days after it The Independent revealed fatal stabbings are taking place every three days in London amid concerns of a resurgence of “postcode wars” between battling gangs.

“London remains one of the safest cities in the world,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told The Independent. “The Met is concerned at the increase in murders in London, and specialist detectives from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating.”One murder is one too many, and we are working hard with our partners to understand the increase and what we can all do to prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place.”