In the UK, police said that a 16-year-old boy had been fatally stabbed on a hilltop above downtown London, where many had assembled to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Grogan stated that shortly before midnight, Harry Pitman was on Primrose Hill with pals when he got into a fight that ended in death. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful.
Authorities stated they were holding a juvenile suspect in custody on murder charges.
Reports show the multitude of people gathering on the hill next to Regent’s Park were potential witnesses, and detectives were trying to get in touch with them. It is next to several public housing buildings and bordered by streets of affluent estates. To accommodate the city’s fireworks show along the Thames River, the park was to remain open until one in the morning, even though it’s generally closed at night.
Primrose Hill remained blocked as police officers and a forensics crew scoured the grass for clues about the stabbing.
While overall crime in England and Wales has been on the rise, the spike in knife crimes in London has happened at the same time. The number of crimes committed in England and Wales increased from a little over four million in the previous decade to almost 6.74 million in 2022–2023.
There was a rise in the number of murders committed with knives over the same period, with 282 recorded in 2021-2022 compared to 186 in 2014-2015.
In 2021-2022, more than 40% of killings in the UK included knives and sharp objects.
The British media has focused chiefly on knife violence in London, but they also covered the spike in scooters and acid assaults that happened around the same time. For instance, the Metropolitan Police documented 472 acid assaults in 2017, up from 51 in 2007.
As with motorcycle crime, which peaked in 2017, there was a slight decline in both categories by 2019. Even though overall crime in London was going up, it dropped during the COVID-19 epidemic. Crime resumed, going up again in 2022/23.
