A fatal stabbing has brought the capital’s 2018 murder toll to 64 people after a young man died this morning.
The man – aged in his 20s – was stabbed to death in the early hours in Mitcham, south-west London.
Police launched a murder investigation after officers were called at 3:29am to the Upper Green East area.
A man in his twenties died of stab wounds in the early hours of this morning in Mitcham (pictured) where police are investigating
Days ago the capital’s murder toll stood at 63, with the 2018 victims listed in this graphic of London
They arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of murder at the scene and he remains in custody.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and police are trying to establish his identity to trace his loved ones.
A cordon remains in place at the location, where the Homicide and Major Crime Command unit is investigation.
Officers have arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of murder as the victim becomes the 64th to be killed in London this year
The death comes just days after a 24-year-old was killed outside his home in Barking, East Lonodn
It marks the 64th murder this year in London, where the homicide rate overtook New York’s for the first time since records began.
It comes just days after a trainee bricklayer was stabbed to death outside his home in Barking, East London.
The 24-year-old, named locally as Mani, ran away from his attackers wearing his slippers as he tried to escape them close to midnight.
Police are pictured in Barking, East London, here a young bricklayer became the capital’s 63rd murder victim on Thursday
In the first three months of this year 45 murders were recorded, compared to the first quarter of 2017 when there were 23.
There were two stabbings in just half an hour last month, when on April 15 young father Raul Nicolaie was knifed to death aged 26 in north London. In Brixton in the south of the capital, a woman lost her life to knife crime.
An urgent investigation into the violent crime wave in the capital was launched by the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly – and Mayor Sadiq Khan has been urged to ‘take hold of the situation’.