13-year-old killed in London sword attack: How stabbings, knife crimes are rising in UK

The United Kingdom (UK) woke up to disturbing news this morning — a man armed with a sword went on a rampage, attacking members of the public and police officers in Hainault in northeast London.

The London Ambulance Service said emergency workers treated five people and took them to the hospital, while the 36-year-old attacker has been taken into police custody. AFP has reported that of the five victims, a 13-year-old boy has died.

The attack has once again thrown light to the rise in stabbings and knife crimes in the UK. In fact, according to official UK data, knife crime has surged by seven per cent in the past year, making it a concern for authorities as well as the public.

Let’s know more.

The Hainault stabbing

This morning (30 April), the Metropolitan Police responded to a call of a serious incident just before 7:00 am local time. The Metropolitan Police said they were called early Tuesday to reports of a vehicle being driven into a house in a residential street and people being stabbed close to the Hainault underground station.

A 36-year-old man was arrested at the scene, police said, adding that it was not being treated as terror-related. AFP has reported that a 13-year-old boy died after five people, including two police officers, were wounded by a man wielding a sword in east London, police said.

Video on British media showed a man in a yellow hoodie holding a long sword or knife walking near houses in the area. Witnesses say they heard police shouting to the suspect urging him to put down the weapon as they chased after him.

“This must have been a terrifying incident for those concerned,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan was quoted as telling AP. “I know the wider community will be feeling shock and alarm. People will want to know what has happened and we will provide more information as soon as we can.”

Commenting on the incident, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “absolutely devastated” by the attack in Hainault and thanked the emergency services for “running towards danger”.

UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak also expressed shock at the incident, saying that “such violence has no place on our streets”.

Other recent stabbings

The attack in Hainault is another case of stabbing and knife crimes that has plagued the UK. On 24 April, a teenage girl was arrested after stabbing a student and two teachers at Amman Valley School in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire in Wales. The teen has now been arrested and charged with charged with attempt to murder.

Prior to that, on 10 April, a 16-year-old boy was left in a critical condition when he was stabbed in Liverpool. A police official later said that two 16-year-olds — a girl and a boy — had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Liverpool had also witnessed another stabbing last December in which three men were stabbed near the Sir Thomas Hotel on Victoria Street.

In September 2023, a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death on her way to school in Croydon, south London. A 17-year-old boy was later arrested for the crime.

Numbers game

What can be gleaned from these incidents? Knife crimes in the UK have risen — considerably. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that there were 49,489 incidents of knife crime recorded between January 2023 to December 2023.

This was up from 46,153 (seven per cent) in the same period in 2022 but three per cent lower than pre-COVID pandemic levels. There were 51,206 such offences in the year ending March 2022. Data further reveals that West Midlands is the worst region for knife crimes.

The data also shows that knife crime is rising faster in rural areas than in other parts of Britain. Offences of knife possession have doubled in the past decade in rural areas, compared with a 60 per cent rise in urban police force areas, according to Labour analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.

But what’s behind this surge in knife crimes? An op-ed in The Sunday Times attributes it to a feeling of being unsafe. Non-fatal attacks such as muggings and robberies are causing more boys to carry weapons because they feel “unsafe”. In the same article, the author writes that it is “also about status”, and “carrying a weapon is a way for a boy to make himself look big”.

When it comes to rise in knife crimes in rural areas, experts peg it to the rise of county lines gangs that have exported drugs such as heroin and cocaine from cities into more rural areas. As The Telegraph notes this has sparked turf wars with local criminals to control the drug market as they recruit children as young as seven to act as drug “mules.”

Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife crime charity, also notes that there are a “long list” of things, which drive knife crime. “Social exclusion, poverty, deprivation, inequality, racism – a whole number of factors make people vulnerable to being drawn into crime and, ultimately, violence.”

He likened the devastation to a “virus or epidemic”, emphasising there was not one profile that put someone at risk.

Steps to address issue of knife crime

And with knife crimes only increasing in the country, authorities and campaigners are trying to take steps to correct this situation.

In January this year, actor Idris Elba launched a campaign to combat knife crime in Britain. At the launch of his “Don’t Stop Your Future” campaign, he had piles of neatly folded clothes laid in rows across London’s Parliament Square to represent those who have died from knife crime. They included an outfit donated by the family of a murdered teenager worn at the time of his death.

And in the same month, the UK government introduced its third attempt to ban ‘zombie knives.’ The ban targeted knives with a combination of features, including a cutting edge, a serrated edge, and imagery or wording that suggests violence. This definition expanded upon the initial 2016 ban, which some felt was too easily circumvented.

But as Green told Euronews earlier, “Knife crime is everybody’s responsibility. Of course, police and politicians carry a significant burden but we can all do something about it.”

With inputs from agencies