A trauma surgeon has said he is regularly treating children in school uniforms for gun and knife wounds at a London hospital that has been compared to an 'Afghan war zone'.

As the capital's murder rate and gang violence escalates, a growing number of children are being injured and killed in the wake of the epidemic.

Martin Griffiths, a lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, said children as young as 13 years old being are being admitted for life-threatening wounds daily.

Griffiths said colleagues who served in the military likened their work at the London hospital to being back at Camp Bastion, the British Forces base in war-torn Afghanistan.

Martin Griffiths, a trauma surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, said children are being admitted daily for gun and knife wounds in London. He says military colleagues have likened their work at the hospital to being back at Camp Bastion, the British Forces base in war-torn Afghanistan

Jonny Scrimshaw, an emergency medicine trainee, echoed Griffiths' concerns on Twitter, saying the public should be 'outraged' over the growing number of incidents involving children

Speaking to Radio 4's Today, the leading surgeon said: 'We used to look after people in their 20s now we look after people in their mid to late teens and children, children in school uniforms are being admitted under our care with knife and gun wounds.

'We routinely have children under our care - 13, 14 15-year-olds are daily occurrences.

'About a quarter of what we see in our practice is knife and gun injury and now we are doing major life-saving cases on a daily basis.

'Some of my military colleagues have described the practice here as similar to being at Bastion, which is a very worrying comment to hear.'

Griffiths works as a lead trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, where there was a record 702 stabbing victims in 2017.

Griffiths works as a lead trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital (pictured), where there was a record 702 stabbing victims in 2017

Jonny Scrimshaw, an emergency medicine trainee, echoed Griffiths' concerns on Twitter.

He wrote: 'The number of children stabbed and shot this weekend that we have had to treat @NHSBartsHealth is very upsetting.

'This is an epidemic of violence against and between kids and we ought to be outraged, we ought to be motivated to fix it and we shouldn't rest until we have.

'Even in medicine, where we see the cost of these injuries, we normalise these events -''they grow up quickly'', ''he looks older'', ''it's a gang thing'' but these are children - protected by law from injuring themselves with alcohol, tobacco, fighting in the armed forces.

'As a society we, the adults, deem these kids do not have sufficient capacity to understand politics and vote, yet we have made a society on their behalf that fails them.

'It's time for a concerted effort from society and government to address this.'

Tanesha Melbourne, 17, (left) was the victim of a drive-by shooting in Tottenham on Monday night. Just a few miles away, a 16-year-old named locally as Amaan Shakoor (right), was shot in the face

Floral tributes have been left for Tanesha Melbourne-Blake on Chalgrove Road in Tottenham

Their comments come as London struggles to grapple with its growing murder rate.

Metropolitan Police are now investigating more than 50 cases of homicide since the start of the year.

In February, London's murder rates beat out New York City's for the first time ever.

Many of the fatalities have included teenagers, including youth worker Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was the victim of a drive-by shooting in Tottenham on Monday night, and died in her mother's arms.

Just a few miles away, a 16-year-old named locally as Amaan Shakoor, was shot in the face in Walthamstow by 'rival drug dealers', according to a friend.

He died later in hospital.

On Wednesday, a man in his 20s was found fatally wounded by officers in Hackney at about 8pm, and died at the scene half an hour later despite receiving first aid.