- A spate of serious incidents recorded in London’s Greenwich and Southwark
- In one incident, a boy tried to stab another boy in broad daylight.
- In the second, a young man armed with a knife was seen trying to steal a mobile phone.
This is the shocking moment a teenager tried to attack someone with a knife in broad daylight.
Video footage taken by an Uber driver in Rotherhithe, south-east London, on Tuesday shows the teenager wearing a black hoodie and holding a knife in his right hand.
Teenagers start fights with other young people. Several punches are exchanged before the knife is fully visible.
The footage then shows a boy with a knife approaching the other boy and threatening to stab him. The boy then rode away on his bicycle.
The incident is the latest horrific incident to plague south-east London after a sharp rise in knife crime over the past 12 months.
Figures released by the Metropolitan Police show there were 501 knife crimes in Greenwich in 2023, an increase of 24.3% compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, Southwark saw 736 incidents in 2023, an increase of 3.5% compared to 2022.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told MailOnline: “We are aware of a distressing video circulating on social media of a man holding a knife and brandishing it at another person.”
This video was filmed on Rotherhithe New Road, SE16, at around 12.25pm on Tuesday, January 30th.
“Officers were made aware of the incident and immediately responded to the scene. They searched the area and found no sign of the man at this time.
They added: “We would like to reassure local residents that an investigation into this incident is ongoing.”
“I would urge anyone who was in the area at the time and witnessed anything, or who has information about the man’s identity, to contact police as soon as possible.”
“Call 101 or post ‘X’ @MetCC quoting CAD 5003/3.”
Meanwhile, four teenagers were found guilty of two counts of murder each after police detectives pieced together a complex case through detailed analysis of surveillance footage.
Last Friday at Inner London Crown Court, Alazi Jobe, 19, Hussein Barr, 19, and boys aged 16 and 18 were found guilty of two counts of murder.
A double murder investigation has been launched after two 16-year-olds, Charlie Bartolo and Khan Solanke, were found with fatal stab wounds in Greenwich on November 26, 2022.
Initially, there was no obvious connection between the two murders. However, police quickly determined the sequence of events.
Bartolo and two friends were riding their motorcycles on Sewell Road around 5pm when Bartolo was intentionally rear-ended by an oncoming car. He was thrown into the air over the handlebars of his bicycle.
Solanke, Jobe and the 16-year-old defendant escaped from the passenger side where Bartolo had collapsed and stabbed Bartolo eight times in the head.
Surveillance camera footage shows the attackers each using a large knife to wound Bartolo. During the incident, Khan was also accidentally stabbed by one of his friends.
The other two people who got out of the driver’s side of the car did not physically participate in the violence, but the driver was armed with a knife.
Mr Solanke then returned to his car with the rest of the group and they all drove away.
However, when the car reached Titmouth Street, just a mile away, the group abandoned the car and left Caen, dying on the pavement.
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn said: “I am delighted that all four defendants have been found guilty.” This was an unusual case in that the killing of Mr Khan Solanke was clearly not the group’s objective.
“However, we are aware that this group intends to cause death or at least serious injury in the course of a coordinated attack and, sadly, one of its members has inadvertently become its victim. I succeeded in proving it.
“This incident shows the full extent of the devastation caused by knife crime and how people armed with large knives risked killing not only those they considered enemies, but also those they considered friends. My thoughts, and those of my team, are with the families of both Charlie and Khan.”
Meanwhile, police have arrested two teenagers, aged 14 and 15, in connection with the theft of several mobile phones in Greenwich.
Police were called to Eastside Park around 11:30 a.m. last Sunday. The victim reported that the two men snatched her cell phone from her hand while she was riding an electric bike.
Similar calls were made about further incidents between Deptford and the O2.
Using data and quick intelligence to connect patterns, officers were able to locate the two teenagers. Seven mobile phones and a machete were recovered.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of theft and a 14-year-old boy was also arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and subsequently charged. He appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Youth Court on Tuesday, January 30.
Three of the phones have been returned to their rightful owners and work is underway to trace the owners of the remaining phones.
Superintendent Jim Corbett, who heads emergency response across south-east London, said: “We know theft is a big concern for people and it’s frightening to have something snatched.”
“Officers responded as soon as the calls started coming in. They quickly identified the suspect who was arrested and a number of cell phones and a machete were recovered.
“We will continue to work to crack down on these types of crimes, which have a significant impact on victims.”
The incident comes as the latest figures released by the Metropolitan Police show an increase in knife crime in the London boroughs of Greenwich and Southwark, where the incident occurred.
Latest ONS data shows there were 12,786 knife crimes committed in London in the year to March 2023, an increase of 16% on the previous year.
The total number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales was 6.7 million in 2022/23, compared to 6.3 million in 2021/22.