Scotland Yard launched four murder investigations in the space of 24 hours as a teenager became the 25th person to be murdered on the streets of London this year.

In a barbaric week in the capital where the authorities were squeezed further to curb the knife crime epidemic, it emerged three of the four most recent victims had been stabbed.

The first murder probe was launched Wednesday afternoon when Spanish national David Martinez, 26, was stabbed to death in Leyton.

Hours later, a man who was stabbed on Sunday, March 3, in Soho, succumbed to his injuries and a second murder investigation was launched.

The third murder file was passed to CID on Thursday afternoon when the body of film producer Laureline Garcia-Bertaux was found in a shallow grave in a garden in Kew.

And the fourth murder investigation in 24 hours was launched when Ayub Hassan, 17, was stabbed to death in broad daylight in West Kensington.