Killing in Battersea comes just hours after police appeal for witnesses to two earlier knife attacks

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a teenager was fatally stabbed in south-west London, Scotland Yard said.

The men, aged 19 and 27, were arrested after presenting themselves at a central London hospital. Both men were taken to separate central London police stations for questioning.

Police said they were called to reports of an incident in Battersea shortly before 8pm on Tuesday and found a 19-year-old man with stab wounds.

Despite the efforts of paramedics from the London ambulance service, he died about half an hour later. He has yet to be formally identified and a crime scene remained in place.

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The murder investigation came only hours after detectives appealed for information from witnesses to two more stabbings elsewhere in the city.

Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, police had issued an appeal for information about knife attacks on two more teenagers, who were wounded in the Feltham area of south-west London on Sunday. Officers believe those attacks were linked, though no link to the Battersea incident has been suggested.

Officers said they were called by the London ambulance service shortly before 2pm on Sunday. Paramedics had found the first victim, who police believe to be aged in his late teens, and he was taken to a south London hospital.

A short time later, officers said they were made aware of a second victim, believed to be aged in his mid-teens. He was suffering from slash wounds and was also taken to hospital. Neither victim’s injuries are believed to be life-threatening, Scotland Yard said on Tuesday.

The investigation is still in its early stages and there have been no arrests.

The Battersea murder is the latest in a spate of killings in the capital in recent months. Last year in London 135 people were murdered or unlawfully killed – the largest number in a calendar year in a decade. Data gathered by the Guardian showed the majority were stabbed and more than two-fifths of all the victims were men under 30.