|
|
 |
| |
Scene of the stabbing |
Stabbing of two sixth-formers brings ‘enough is enough’ plea
Three hunted over knife attack pupils witnessed on way home from school
A GANG attack that left two sixth-formers with stab wounds yards from their school gates on Tuesday has sparked calls for urgent intervention to stop “routine” youth violence.
Two 17-year-old pupils of Maria Fidelis Convent School were taken to hospital with wounds to the back and chest after the 3pm attack outside the Cock Tavern, in Phoenix Road, Somers Town.
An 18-year-old man was arrested shortly afterwards in Chalton Street, but police were last night (Wednesday) seeking three men in connection with the attack, witnessed by at least 30 people, many of them children on their way home from school.
Some described seeing the attackers flee towards Euston Road in a Volkswagen, while others saw the injured boys stagger bleeding into the courtyard of Walker House, in Chalton Street.
Resident Angela Berney, who saw the incident from Polygon Road, said: “There are always plenty of kids around just after school but I saw there was a group against the wall, then shouting, then two of them were coming away towards Walker House and surrounded by people trying to help them.
“Someone shouted it was a stabbing and someone else said it was a school fight.”
The youths, whose condition is described as “stable” and “comfortable”, remained in hospital yesterday.
Residents and councillors have complained for months that the end of the school day has become a flashpoint on Somers Town estates.
Somers Town and St Pancras Labour councillor Roger Robinson said: “Enough is enough. We have to stop kids from routinely using our estates as their fighting grounds. If this carries on there will be a death.” He called for an urgent meeting with school heads.
The attack has prompted extra police patrols in Somers Town and around Regent’s Park under Operation Curb, the Met’s programme on youth-on-youth gang crime.
But Camden’s Operation Curb chief Sergeant Dominic Barnes said it appeared to be “a very isolated incident”.
At Maria Fidelis Convent School, headteacher Pauline Williams held a special assembly yesterday to reassure pupils.
She said that the two stab victims were expected to make a full recovery.
“We will be supporting them and their families,” she added. “Why it happened or who was to blame is a matter for the police.”
Detective Sergeant Alex Castle, from Camden CID, said: “This is a very fast-moving, intensive inquiry, with a lot of evidence to gather from the large number of witnesses.
“We will be seeking witnesses from the school.”
He asked witnesses to call him on 020 8733 6578. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
Your Comments:
Sounds as if Somers Town hasn't changed much since I grew up there in the 50s; knives, razors, broken off car aerials and lengths of rubber hose pipe were 'de rigeur', and we were all used to it. Each time I revisit the area, I think how pleased I am not to live there, and how I've moved on, even if Somers Town hasn't!
Guess it's nothing a squadron of bulldozers couldnt fix!
Name and address supplied |
|
|
|
