A teenager is fighting for his life after being stabbed on the streets of London as the British capital's murder rate soared above that of New York.

The 16-year-old boy is the latest victim of violent crime after an incident in Bow, east London, at about 6.05pm on Sunday night.

It is thought the teen was stabbed near a parade of shops just off the A12 and witnesses described seeing two people being stretchered away from the scene.

The teenage victim was in a critical condition last night and two men were arrested.

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A policeman in a high-visibility jacket stands outside the cordon as his colleagues interview potential witnesses at what is thought to be the scene of the stabbing

A police car is seen pulled up outside a parade of shops near where it is thought the teenager was stabbed last night

A police officer walks past the crime scene. A teenager is fighting for his life after being stabbed on the streets of London as the British capital's murder rate soared above that of New York

Weeks of carnage on the streets is beginning to take its toll on residents and a mother-of-two who drove past the carnage said: 'Too much s*** happening in this area.

'Every day there's someone getting hurt or killed. Can't wait to move away from this hopeless, horrific, disastrous place.'

The area was cordoned off as around 20 police vehicles descended upon the shops, which include a newsagent and a fried chicken take-away.

The arrested men have been taken into custody at an east London police station.

It comes as the past two months of bloodshed in London has seen the city overtake New York's murder rate, official police figures show, as Scotland Yard battles a 38 per cent surge in killings since 2014.

Fifteen people were killed in London in February, compared to 14 in New York.

And the trend looks set to continue, with 22 killings in London in March – one more than the city on the other side of the Atlantic, where urban violence has long been prevalent.

The murder epidemic continued on Sunday when Devoy Stapleton, 20, was knifed to death on his way home from a night out at 1am in Wandsworth. It is the 31st fatal stabbing in London this year.

A man has died after being stabbed to death on Sunday morning in Wandsworth. The unnamed victim in his twenties had left a bar and was found with the fatal wound on Ellerton Road at the junction with Burntwood Lane (pictured)

The man, who is thought to be 20, was pronounced dead at the scene around 2am on Sunday

Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course, but the victim's next-of-kin have been informed

Police were called after he collapsed in a pool of blood at 1.10am just a street away from his home in Wandsworth, on a residential road near the Common where homes fetch over £1million.

He died at the scene less than an hour later.

Last night his cousin Billie Shuter said: 'My little cousin was murdered last night, my heart is broken. RIP Devoy Stapleton.'

His family who live just a street away from the murder scene were too upset to speak, but a large crowd gathered last night at the scene to leave flowers and tributes.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody at a west London police station.

A murder epidemic is sweeping London. On Sunday, an unnamed man in his 20s became the 12th person in just 19 days to be gunned down or stabbed to death in the capital

A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody at a west London police station in connection to the Sunday killing

Locals left flowers and tributes to the stabbing victim on Sunday afternoon

The surge in killings comes as rates of rape, robbery, and violent offences in London have already eclipsed those in New York.

While both London and New York have populations of around 8 million, Office of National Statistics figures published in October suggest you are almost six times more likely to be burgled in the British capital than in the US city, and one and a half times more likely to be robbed.

London also has almost three times the number of reported rapes, but until February this year the murder rate in New York remained higher.

The total number of London murders, even excluding victims of terrorism, has risen by 38 per cent since 2014.

In contrast, the number of murders in New York have fallen by 87 per cent since its 1990s peak.

Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick said social media sites could be to blame, claiming disputes on online messaging boards and video sites were escalating to murder 'within minutes'.

'There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly,' she said.

She also wants to increase the use of stop and search, which fell by up to two thirds when Theresa May was Home Secretary.

Scotland Yard (32,000 officers) and the New York City Police Department (40,000) both have budgets of £3 billion a year.

But the NYPD has introduced a zero tolerance approach to low-level crime and has flooded problem areas with patrols.

Critics say Scotland Yard has done the exact opposite in the face of budget cuts, as it has 'screened out' a number of low-level offences and moved officers from neighbourhood policing to pursue historic child abuse inquiries, terrorism and other high-profile inquiries.

Lyndon Davis (left), 18, the youngest to have been named in March, was found suffering from a single stab wound in Chadwell Heath, east London on March 14. Joseph Williams-Torres (right), 20, was killed the same evening as he sat in a stationary car in Essex Close, Walthamstow

THE 12 DEAD IN JUST 19 DAYS IN LONDON'S MURDER EPIDEMIC Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, Walthamstow Lyndon Davis, 18, Chadwell Heath Russell Jones, 23, Enfield Hersi Hersi, 36, Hounslow Tyrone Silcott, 42, Hackney Balbir Johal, 48, Southall Jermaine Johnson, 41, Walthamstow Beniamin Pieknyi, 20, Stratford Centre Abraham Badru, 26, Hackney David Potter, 50, Tooting High Street Unnamed man, 23, Greenwich Unnamed man, 20s, Wandsworth Advertisement

David Green, of the think-tank Civitas, said: 'There is now a higher risk of being a victim of violent crime in London than New York, which is pretty staggering. There is no way in which the police can be expected to deal with a bigger population in London and a lot of gang activity if you keep cutting budgets and reducing officer numbers.

'If you look at cities like New York and Boston, they have poured a lot of resources into diverting people from gang activity and putting more officers on the street.

'We have reduced visible policing – it's the exact opposite.'

Lyndon Davis, 18, the youngest to have been killed in March, was found suffering from a single stab wound in Chadwell Heath, east London on March 14.

Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was killed the same evening as he sat in a stationary car in Essex Close, Walthamstow.

Russell Jones, 23, was ambushed outside shops near Ponders End station, in Enfield and stabbed and shot to death.

Father-of-two Tyrone Silcott, 42, died from knife wounds on March 18 after a St Patrick's Day party.

It is alleged the car mechanic got into a row over two girls at a party in Homerton and was attacked.

Romanian Beniamin Pieknyi, 20, (pictured) is believed to have jumped in to the fight in a bid to save his friend during the altercation at the Stratford Centre in east London

Hersi Hersi (left), who lived as a trans woman called Naomi, was pronounced dead at the scene after being found with knife injuries at Heathrow Palace in Hounslow. Russell Jones, 23, became the eighth person in a week to be killed in London when he was ambushed outside shops near Ponders End station, Enfield

Hersi Hersi, who lived as a trans woman called Naomi, was pronounced dead at the scene after being found with knife injuries at Heathrow Palace in Haslemere Avenue, Hounslow, at 10.50am on Sunday.

On March 19, Balbir Johal, 48, died after being stabbed in Southall and the next day 41-year-old Jermaine Johnson died of knife wounds in Walthamstow.

Romanian Beniamin Pieknyi, is believed to have jumped in to the fight in a bid to save his friend during the altercation at the Stratford Centre in east London on the 20th.

The 20-year-old, who only arrived in Britain two months ago, died in his best friend's arms after being chased and stabbed by a gang in the busy shopping centre.

On March 25, 26-year-old Abraham Badru was gunned down in Hackney.

The university graduate, who was murdered in Dalston, east London, on Sunday, was awarded the National Police Bravery Award in July 2009.

David Potter, 50, was found stabbed to death in a property on Tooting High Street on Monday 26.

And an unnamed 23-year-old in Greenwich was killed on Thursday night, the final murder for the month of March.

London's murder rate has overtaken New York City's numbers for the first time ever. In February, there were 15 murders, including 17-year-old Promise Nkenda (pictured), who was run over and stabbed to death

Lewis Blackman (left) was stabbed to death after a party in Kensington on February 18. Kwabena Nelson, 22, (right) was ambushed outside his home in Tottenham and stabbed to death in early February

Aspiring accountant Sadiq Aadam Mohamed, 20, was found with serious stab wounds in Malden Road, in Belsize Park, in February

THE 15 MURDER VICTIMS OF FEBRUARY Sadiq Mohamed, 20, Kentish Town Abdikarim Hassan, 17, Kentish Town Josef Boci, 30, Greenwich Seyed Khan, 49, Ilford Rotimi Oshibanjo, 26, Southall Promise Nkenda, 17, Canning Town Sabri Chibani, 19, Streatham Common Lewis Blackman, 19, Kensington Hasan Ozcan, 19, Barking Hannah Leonard, 55, Swiss Cottage Kwabena Nelson, 22, Tottenham Mark Smith, 48, Chingford Bulent Kabala, 41, Enfield Saeeda Hussain, 54, Ilford Juan Olmos Saca, 39, Peckham Advertisement

Jacob Whittingham, charity head of programmes for Fight for Peace, told the Sunday Times: 'What's scary about London is the randomness of the crime.

'With young people in London, you have no idea if and when you may be the victim of a violent crime — that's why they feel the need to carry weapons.'

DCS Sean Yates, Scotland Yard's head of knife crime, blamed social media as an increasing factor in escalating grudges between youngsters that led to knife attacks.

He also said courts were failing to enforce a 'two strikes' law aimed at jailing those caught with a knife twice, which was frustrating law enforcement.

The sharp rise in the number of young people killed by knife crime in London has come despite Scotland Yard stepping up its use of suppression and enforcement tactics, carrying out more stop and search, more weapon sweeps and other activity on the streets.

The Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, has said reversing rising violent crime is a priority.

Speaking in February she said: 'The frequency with which some of our young people are prepared to take each other's lives is shocking.

'London must come together to make it clear that this cannot continue. We will not police our way out of this problem.'

Cressida Dick continued: 'There is a role for all of us – London's public, our partners and the police.'

She appealed directly to young people saying: 'There will be young people out today who are carrying knives - stop and think.

'Do you really want your life to end? Or end someone else's and waste your own life in prison?

'My challenge to everyone in London is to ask each and every person to think about what you can do to help us tackle this blight on our city.'

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan requested an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister and Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service to discuss what can be done 'to tackle the evil of knife attacks on Britain's streets'.