Murder probe after spate of ‘isolated’ south London stabbings

LONDON: Police investigating a spate of stabbings in south London have launched a murder investigation after a 22-year-old was killed and nine others were injured.

Officers were called to five reports of stabbings in the Croydon area between 6.56pm and 9.12pm on Friday. A 22-year-old man injured at a property in Wisbeach Road, Croydon, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Metropolitan Police said a group of males attended an address in Wisbeach Road and the victim was stabbed in an altercation.

On Saturday, Scotland Yard said the incidents are not thought to be linked. Regarding the murder probe, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Thorpe, from the Met’s Specialist Crime team, said: “We know that a group of males attended the address and an altercation occurred which resulted in the victim receiving a fatal stab injury.

“I would ask any local residents who saw or heard anything shortly after 8pm on Friday evening to contact police; no matter how insignificant you think your information might be, it could help us piece together what happened.

“I am aware that this was one of a number of violent incidents in and around the south London area on Friday evening but there is nothing to connect these incidents together at this time.”

Of the nine males wounded, two sustained serious injuries but neither are now in a life-threatening condition. Gold Commander for London this weekend, Ade Adelekan, said investigations were ongoing regarding the circumstances of the incidents but said they were “being treated as isolated”.

He added: “However, that does not make this series of violent incidents any less shocking and I understand that residents in and around the areas where these incidents occurred will be rightly concerned.”

One resident, who has lived at the block of flats near the scene of the fatal stabbing for more than 20 years, said she saw police and medical staff trying to save a heavily bleeding young man.

She said the man’s mother later showed up “crying and in pieces”.

The witness, who declined to be named, told reporters the man was bleeding from a deep cut to his leg and there was “blood everywhere”.

She said: “I heard someone shouting but it’s normal because people drink outside, I came down and saw two police and two ambulance guys on the ground with him.”

She said she saw medical staff make an incision in his torso, adding: “They tried really hard to save him but there was a lot of blood. There was blood everywhere, it looked like he was cut in the leg and they tried to stop the bleeding.

“My husband was outside for 45 minutes and said his stepdad showed up and said he was 21. His mum was here crying and she was in pieces.

“It is terrifying, my son is 19 and I’m worried for him.”

Several police officers stood guard around the scene in Wisbeach Road on Saturday morning. It is located on a quiet estate next to a railway line and officers are making door-to-door inquiries.

A white and yellow forensic tent was erected inside the metal gate of a block of flats. The Metropolitan Police said no arrests have been made in connection with the murder probe.

Two other people have been arrested – a man in his 40s found with a stab wound at an address on Dingwall Road, Croydon, was arrested on suspicion of affray and a 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of GBH.