Saturday, March 29, 2008

Murder in London town

Murders in London mapped after latest death


By staff and agencies
Last Updated: 4:40pm GMT 29/03/2008

Figures from the Metropolitan Police Service have revealed the density of murders occuring on London's streets, as officers investigate the latest killing of a teenager in the capital.

A 16-year-old has been accused of the murder of a 14-year-old boy, another victim of London's violence crisis.

The boy, of Queens Park, will appear at West London Youth Court on Monday in relation to the death of Amro Elbadawi.

London violence continues as teenager charged
Click to enlarge: Murders in 2007 by London borough

The news came as statistics compiled by the Metropolitan Police Service revealed that more than half of murder victims in the capital last year were from ethnic minority groups.

Amro crawled into a health centre bleeding heavily from his neck, apparently after a petty row with a friend escalated.

Despite the desperate attempts of employees and paramedics to save his life, the teenager died in hospital about an hour later.

The schoolboy was the second teenager to die from a knife wound in the capital that day, which was London's bloodiest day of youth violence this year.

The deaths brought the toll of teenage murders in the capital so far this year to 11.

A total of 26 teenagers were killed last year.

The attacks led to calls from all quarters for a renewed drive to force young people to stop carrying weapons.

Figures for 2007, seen by the Financial Times, show that the borough of Lambeth had the highest murder rate at 23, followed by Newham, which was the scene for 13 murders.

The murder rates, when mapped out, reveal that a large number of homicides take place in socially deprived neighbourhoods.

The middle-class enclaves of Harrow, Richmond, Merton, and Kensington and Chelsea, did not witness any murders last year.

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