Five men were shot during three separate shootings across London, and in the early hours of Sunday, four men were stabbed during what is believed was a street brawl in High Holborn.
In just seven hours between Friday night and Saturday, there were three shootings across London, with gunfire sounding out in Hackney, Croydon, and in Brixton, which reportedly featured a submachine gun.
The violence began in Brixton on Friday night, shortly before 7 pm, when armed police were called to the scene of the shooting, but found no victims within the vicinity.
“Officers, including firearms officers, attended and found damage to two parked vehicles,” the Metropolitan Police Service said per the Daily Mail.
“There was no trace of any victims. Police were called a short time later to a south London hospital after two males self-presented with gunshot injuries.”
Later in Hackney, two men were allegedly shot at an illegal ‘street party’ on Mandeville Street. Police were also called to break up another street party in Shoreditch, where a police officer suffered a head injury during the brawl that ensued.
A man was also shot in Croydon, during an altercation nearby the West Croydon Station at 1:40 am on Saturday.
In the early hours of Sunday, four men were stabbed in High Holborn, with two men remaining in critical condition, according to the London Evening Standard. They are believed to have been involved in a street brawl.
The spate of bloodshed over the weekend comes after London experienced its deadliest month so far this year in July, with 15 murders taking place throughout the British capital.
The latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in July revealed that knife crime in England and Wales climbed to record levels in the year leading up to March.
The rise in crime throughout Britain was driven to a great extent by violence in London under the leadership of Mayor Sadiq Khan. Under his rule, there has been a seven per cent spike in knife crime. Murders have risen by 23 per cent in the year leading up to April.
Despite the crime wave terrorising London, Mr Khan has announced his intentions to cut some £110 million from the budgets of the Metropolitan Police, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), and the fire brigade, among other public bodies, as a result of budget shortfalls during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
The Metropolitan Police Service has found money within its budget, however, to hire so-called ‘racism spotters‘, who examine prospective police officers and determine whether they are prejudiced against racial minorities.
The civilian staffed position has been a part of the MPS since 2003, yet the racism spotters have recently received a 50 per cent pay rise, meaning that they are earning the equivalent of a full-time salary of £39,000, which is £10,000 higher than the starting wage of real police officers.
