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Lynne Savery: ‘You can get anything here’
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Fourth stabbing sparks drug gang invasion fears
Traders protest as crime-hit road is closed off again after knifing
RIVAL gangs involved in drug dealing and selling stolen electrical goods could be to blame for the latest stabbing in Finsbury Park.
Traders and residents told the Tribune that Tuesday afternoon’s knife attack in Blackstock Road may be linked to a burgeoning drugs trade.
Shopkeepers in the street, on the Islington-Hackney border, say organised gangs sell laptop computers and MP3 players from car boots.
The attack, which happened in daylight, is the fourth stabbing in the past month.
A 23-year-old Lithuanian man was stabbed twice, once in the lung – right under a CCTV camera. Although he managed to run a few hundreds yards towards Highbury, he collapsed outside City and Islington College.
His attacker fled the scene and police have not yet recovered a weapon. The victim was taken to a north London hospital, where he was in a serious condition yesterday (Thursday), although his injuries are not life-threatening.
Part of Blackstock Road was closed on Tuesday night and much of Wednesday as detectives and forensics teams searched for clues.
Mustapha Yeldiz, 33, who works in a grocers opposite the college, described the scene after the man was stabbed. “There was a lot of noise and then a huge crowd of people – about 100 – were all around him,” he said. “Police came very quickly and sealed off the area.”
Past knife attacks were blamed on increasing tensions within Finsbury Park’s Algerian community, although the motive for the latest stabbing is unclear.
Tuesday’s attack happened despite extra CCTV in the area and an increased police presence.
Traders complain that attacks are costing them business, with Blackstock Road placed under a heavy police cordon every time someone is stabbed.
A shopkeeper on the Hackney side of the road, a 62-year-old father-of-two who asked not to be named, has written to Hackney Chief Superintendent Steve Dann to protest at the lost trade.
He said: “Every time something happens they’ve got to close the road. The police know who is operating in the area but are doing nothing about it.
“People know this is the place to come to buy knocked-off stuff from car boots. It’s very well organised.”
Residents say the problems have been getting worse in the past few months.
Lynne Savery, 47, a children’s charity worker from Highbury, said: “The people who work here are good people. It’s so sad that the criminals are ruining everything. You can get anything here. Crack, cocaine, heroin, it’s all sold here. Everything bad that happens in the street is down to drugs.”
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