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Police investigate the scene outside The Mall shopping arcade, Camden Passage, where a teenager died on the pavement |
YOUTH DIES IN KNIFE HORROR
Teenagers stabbed as shoppers throng busy Upper Street
ONE teenager was killed and another was wounded during a knife attack in broad daylight at the Angel yesterday (Thursday).
A youngster aged around 17 died on the pavement in Upper Street near Camden Passage from stab wounds inflicted in a brutal attack at 2.30pm.
His friend was in hospital last night receiving treatment, also for knife wounds.
Another teenager was arrested close to the scene soon after the stabbings.
The attack comes six months after 14-year-old Highgate schoolboy Martin Dinnegan was fatally stabbed less than two miles away, provoking a campaign against youth knife culture.
Last night, as forensic teams continued to work under a protective tent where the body lay outside The Mall shopping arcade, police were still investigating the names and ages of the victims.
At the police cordon, which sealed off the length of Upper Street from Liverpool Road to Islington Green, witnesses told the Tribune that both the victims and their lone attacker were aged around 17.
“He stabbed two people and just walked away casually, just walking, not even running,” said one, who refused to be identified.
Others pointed to the Upper Street bus shelter 20 yards from the body, where the numbers 30 and 73 from Hackney both stop, claiming that the incident started there.
Forensic investigators in protective suits marked a trail of blood from the bus stop to the dead teenager’s remains.
Onlookers were shocked by the brazen nature of the killing in one of the busiest streets in Islington, yards from the N1 shopping centre and the famous antique market of Camden Passage and in direct view of two CCTV cameras.
“It is very shocking in the glare of Upper Street – it is not even a spot where kids gather and where there is any trouble,” said Liverpool Road resident Joan Burey last night.
“It’s very sad. I know a lot of the kids and I know their parents and I hope to God it is none of them. They need to ban knives, and there need to be metal detectors on these buses. It is the only way to stop it.”
The wider community reacted with horror, with politicians and traders also calling for action on knives.
Camden Passage antique dealer Mike Weedon said: “It’s utterly heart breaking. If ever there should be a campaign to ban knives – then now is the time. What sort of society do we live in where teenage boys get stabbed in the middle of Upper Street in the day after Boxing Day?”
Islington Council leader Lib Dem councillor James Kempton said: “We’re talking to the police about what happened and how we can stop it happening in future. The police did their best to bring calm to the streets after the incident. But knife crime is sadly a nationwide problem and we have got to try and get to grips with it.”
Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry called for a dialogue with young people.
She said: “It is absolutely appalling. My thoughts go out to the parents. I have a 16-year -old son myself and it doesn’t even bear thinking about it. The truth is that it is the young, not the elderly, that are risk.
“Before I was an MP I was a criminal lawyer for 20 years. The experience has given me a deep fear of knives – what they do to communities and how easily they kill. They are too easy to use. We need to talk to these kids and make them realise, because so much of this kind of thing stems from bravado. Kids are taking knives out to show off to their mates and end up using them in arguments. Parents need to take responsibility but so do kids.” |
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