One man was found with stab wounds outside a tube station in East London where he died; another man died from stab injuries after turning up at hospital seeking medical help. Police believe he was stabbed during an 'incident' in West London.
Scotland Yard has launched five murder investigations in the last five days — on top of the recent killings and two more stabbings in South London which has left two victims in hospital.
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The spate in murders comes as recent figures released by London's Air Ambulance reveal medics treated more victims of violent crime in the capital than it dead treating pedestrians, cyclists or drivers in crashes — the first time in its history of 30 year service, newspaper Evening Standard reported. Helicopters attended 560 shootings and stabbings compared to 533 road traffic incidents.
"It is not unusual now for our teams to perform open-chest surgery for stab wounds twice in a single day, this would have been unheard of a few years back," Dr. Gareth Grier said in a statement.
Stabbings in London are at the highest level in six years, increasing by 23 percent on the previous year, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics. There was a total of 37,442 recorded knife crime offences in England and Wales in 2017.
Recent statistics published by London Mayor Sadiq Khan's office reveal a 31.3 percent increase in knife related crime from 2016 and 2017; gun crime increased by 16.3 percent.
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Knife crime affected almost 13,000 people in London in 2017, killing a total of 80 people in the year, four dying from stab wounds on New Year's Eve alone. The news of two more murders in London on one night has led to calls for Sadiq Khan to put gun, gang and knife crime higher on the political agenda.
Meanwhile the police watchdog is investigating the shooting of a man in East London by a firearms officer called to reports of a car robbery where guns were reported to have been seen. The Met confirmed a "police firearm was discharged" at an address in Hackney and the man was taken to hospital.