Scotland Yard has not lost control of London’s streets, a senior officer has insisted, as he announced that two people had been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man during a reported mass brawl in south London.

Ian Tomlin, 46, died after a fight in the area of a block of flats in Battersea on Wednesday. The two suspects were arrested from separate addresses in nearby Wandsworth and, while neither was named by police on Friday, officers said both were aged in their 40s.

Police were called to a group fighting in a communal area at about 5.30pm. Medics battled to save Tomlin’s life, but he was pronounced dead 45 minutes later.

Asked at a briefing near the scene whether he would concede that police had lost control, Metropolitan police Supt Peter Gardner said: “I certainly don’t feel it’s like that, but I understand residents’ frustration … I don’t feel at all that we’ve lost control of the streets, I think that’s not at all accurate.”

Tomlin’s father, Cecil, was quoted on Thursday as saying his son would regularly confront suspected drug dealers near his home and police confirmed that was one of their lines of inquiry. Gardner also said there had been previous drug-related problems on the estate, but would neither confirm nor deny reports a gunshot was heard by locals a few weeks ago.

“We will do everything to bring this investigation to conclusion, and justice to those involved, and continue to do so, for all instances like this,” he said. “This is a tragic incident and it’s absolutely senseless.”

An operation in the area last year resulted in 54 arrests for drugs and other related offences, including possession of an offensive weapon.

Gardner said the recent arrests were made following information passed to the police by the public. CCTV footage had also been instrumental in aiding officers. He did not say whether the men were residents of the estate or if they knew the victim.

A postmortem examination was taking place on Friday.

According to the latest available official data,there was a 14% increase in police-recorded homicide offences across England and Wales in the year ending March 2017 – up from 630 to 719 in a year – and representing a rate of 10.5 per million of population.

However, that was lower than the highest homicide rate recorded by police in the past half-century: 17.9 in the year ending March 2003. The Crime Survey for England and Wales, thought to be the best measure of trends in crime, suggests no recent change in the amount of violent crime.

On Friday, a former commissioner of the police force in Boston, in Massachusetts, said any increase in violence seen in London was “just an uptick”. Bill Evans is known for tackling violent crime in the US city and his tenure brought about a 15-year low in homicides in 2015.

“Every big city, no matter where you live, has similar issues. I think London is a very safe city, they’re just having a little uptick. We have them all the time,” he said.