A 20-year-old man was stabbed 10 times in a “vicious, unprovoked attack” after being chased by a group of teenagers through the streets of London, police have said, as the capital struggles to contain what some have labelled a knife crime epidemic.

The victim of the attack on Tuesday in Harrow, north-west London, suffered significant blood loss but survived with non-life-threatening injuries, Scotland Yard said.



The incident in Eastway Crescent was the latest in a spate of stabbings across the city, coming days after four men, including two teenagers, were stabbed to death in unrelated attacks over the new year period.

Six men have been arrested in connection with two of the stabbings, but there have been no further updates from the Metropolitan police on additional arrests or the identities of the victims.

On the latest incident, DS Amar Patel said: “This was a vicious, unprovoked attack on a young male who had been enjoying an evening with friends when he was chased, ambushed and repeatedly stabbed by a group of males for an unknown reason.

“We have already spoken to lots of people in the area about the incident, but I would appeal to anyone who witnessed the attack and hasn’t spoken to us about it yet to come forward. Any detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem, will help us to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.”

The Metropolitan police described the suspects as a group of black males in their late teens who were wearing dark clothing.



An anti-knife crime campaigner, Alison Cope, whose son Joshua Ribera was stabbed to death in 2013, said the UK was facing a knife crime epidemic. She called on the government to back projects that encourage victims or their relatives to go to schools to educate young people on the impact of such violence.

The new year attacks – three on 31 December and a fourth on 1 January – pushed the total number of fatal stabbings in London in 2017 to 80. The incidents occurred within a 15-hour period at locations in north, east and south London.

The first was at 11.30am on 31 December when an 18-year-old man was stabbed in Enfield. He died in hospital that evening.

At about 7.30pm, a 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed in West Ham, and at about 10.40pm a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Tulse Hill.

The fourth stabbing happened at 2.30am on 1 January when a 20-year-old man was attacked at a house party in Islington. A second man in his 20s was taken to hospital with critical injuries.

Five men have been arrested in connection with the Enfield killing and a 20-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder at the house party in Islington.