Four people have today been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 49-year-old man was stabbed to death in London’s third fatal knife attack in a week.
The Met Police said officers were called to reports of a stabbing in Cranwood Street, Hackney, at around 3.10am on Boxing Day.
The victim was found with stab wounds and died from his injuries. Police said two men aged 49 and 42 and two women aged 35 and 44 have been arrested for murder and remain in custody. Inquiries continue to trace the victim’s next of kin.
Forensic officers are at the crime scene, which is closed off with white and blue police tape.
In a separate development today, the Met arrested a 22-year-old man for murder over a fatal stabbing in Croydon on December 19. A boy had earlier been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in Bermondsey on Christmas Eve.
Earlier this month a 41-year-old woman was arrested after a boy, four, was fatally stabbed in Montague Road, Hackney.
Women embrace near the scene of the stabbing in Hackney in the early hours of the morning
The Met Police said officers were called to reports of a stabbing in Cranwood Street, Hackney, at around 3.10am on Boxing Day
A Lime rental bike lies in the road near to a property in Cranwood Street, central London, where a man died from stab wounds in the early hours of this morning
In the first of three stabbing murders this week, Michael Patrick Afonso Peixoto, 27, died after being attacked and stabbed by a group of men in Mayfield Crescent, Thornton Heath at around 10.30pm on December 19.
After the attack, the suspects drove off in the car Mr Peixoto had been travelling in, a grey Vauxhall Grand X Elite – registration DL19LVS. The car has since been found.
Detective Inspector Martin Thorpe, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: ‘While this arrest marks a significant development in this investigation there is still a great deal of work ongoing.
‘I would like to thank those people who have come forward with information that assisted us in locating the car Michael had been travelling in when he was attacked.
‘However, I reiterate my appeal for anyone who was in the area and saw the events unfold, and has yet to speak to police, to come forward. Your information could prove to be vital in identifying those responsible for this brutal murder.’
It comes as a woman was killed in Bermondsey after being stabbed on Christmas Eve.
Police were called shortly after 10pm on Sunday night, December 24, to Spenlow House on Jamaica Road in Bermondsey.
Officers were told a woman had been stabbed in one of the residential flats in the building.
The London Air Ambulance were also called to the scene, alongside paramedics from the London Ambulance Service.
They immediately began emergency first aid to try and save the woman, but she died at the scene.
Officers began carrying out enquiries straight away, and soon arrested a 16-year-old nearby a short time later. A boy who was known to the victim was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Data shows 12,786 knife offences were carried out in London over the year leading to March 2023, which is a 16 per cent rise from the year before, according to the Office for National Statistics.
One of this year’s most notorious killings saw 15-year-old Elianne Andam stabbed on her way to the Old Palace of John Whitgift School in in Croydon on September 27. A boy, 17, will enter a plea in the case in Feburary.
There have been 920 stabbings resulting in injury in Croydon since January 2018, according to Met Police data. There were 32 attacks in August – the highest level in five years.
A forensic officer at the crime scene on Cranwood Street in Hackney, east London
Forensic officers in overalls near the scene of last night’s murder in Hackney
At least two vans carrying forensic equipment were seen by the scene of the stabbing in Hackney
The victim in this morning’s stabbing in Hackney was found with stab wounds and died from his injuries. Inquiries are continuing to inform his next of kin
The Met has arrested a 22-year-old man for murder over a fatal stabbing in Croydon on December 19. Pictured is victim Michael Patrick Afonso Peixoto, 27
A boy had earlier been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in Bermondsey on Christmas Eve. Pictured is the scene
It makes it on average over the past five years the third worst borough in London for that particular type of crime.
Earlier this month Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was rebuked by the statistics regulator for a false claim that knife crime has been falling in London.
The mayor’s office issued a press release in July claiming that ‘knife and gun crime, homicides and burglary have all fallen since 2016’ when he took charge of City Hall.
The ‘incorrect’ release, which warned that cost of living pressures and the absence of government funding could ‘undo the capital’s fall in violent crime’, was issued minutes before official Office for National Statistics data was published showing a 40 per cent rise in knife crime.
Ed Humpherson, director-general at the Office for Statistics Regulation, said it was ‘incorrect’ to say that knife crime in the capital had declined during Mr Khan’s tenure.
In fact, knife crime has ‘significantly increased across the relevant period’, Mr Humpherson said, adding that his office was ‘engaging’ with City Hall ‘to encourage’ officials to correct the statement
‘Part of the statement is incorrect and has the potential to mislead the public,’ a letter from Mr Humpherson said.
The row came after a complaint was made about the press release, which contained quotes from Mr Khan and boasted that knife crime had fallen ‘as a result of the Mayor’s relentless focus on tackling violent crime’.
Police guard the entrance to a block of flats in Bermondsey where a woman died on Christmas Eve
An officer with a sniffer dog responding to the stabbing Bermondsey on Christmas Eve
Earlier this month Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was rebuked by the statistics regulator for a false claim about falling knife crime that may mislead the public
In reality, ONS figures revealed a 40 per cent rise in knife offences during his time in office from 9,086 crimes recorded in the capital in the year to the end of March 2016 to 12,786 offences in the same period in 2023.
City Hall tried to defend the claim about falling knife crime by citing Met figures showing a decline since 2016 in the number of offences with injury affecting people under 25.
But Mr Humpherson said the mayoral statement had not been ‘clear on the source of the claims’ made about falling knife crime and was ‘not in line with best practice’.
A spokesman for the Mayor said that the press release had been amended and ‘further detail has been added to a press release issued in July 2023 around the specific reductions achieved with knife crime in the capital’.
The amended release makes it clear that it is knife crime with injury involving victims aged under 25 that has fallen since 2016, rather than knife crime overall.
- Anyone with information about the stabbing in Hackney is asked to contact police on 101 or tweet @MetCC and quote CAD669/26Dec. For the murder in Croydon quote CAD 7509/19 Dec.