The bloodshed that has marked the May Bank Holiday weekend has seen three people killed after six shootings and a series of stabbings across the UK.
The latest wave of violence continued on Monday night as Scotland Yard said it is investigating a shooting and a separate stabbing in London.
Officers were called to the stabbing on Leytonstone Road, Stratford, at around 4.40pm, where a victim - in his 20s - was taken to hospital.
Just over ten minutes later, police were called to a shooting in John Williams Close, New Cross Gate.
The victim, a 30-year-old man, who may have been working as a delivery driver, was treated at the scene. The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Police are investigating more than 60 suspected murders in the capital this year.
Official statistics released in April showed the number of homicides in London had surged by 44% in the last year.
Earlier on Sunday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hit out at the government for “failing in their basic duty to keep people safe”.
He said: “The police service in London, like the rest of the country, is overstretched and under-resourced.
“Violent crime has been rising across the country since 2014 and the Government is failing in their basic duty to keep people safe – imposing cuts of £1bn on the Met Police which risk sending police numbers to historically low levels.”
Extra police officers, supported by armed units, are patrolling the streets of London in a bid to combat the Bank Holiday violence.
The incidents of violence this weekend include:
- On Saturday, 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton was shot dead near his home in Southwark, south London.
- A 22-year-old man was shot in New Cross Road, Lewisham, on Sunday. His injuries were described as not life-threatening.
- In Wealdstone, north west London, a 15-year-old boy suffered head injuries caused by “a number of shotgun pellets”. A 13-year-old boy, who was an innocent bystander, was also shot in the head.
- Fatah Warsame, 20, from Cardiff, died after being stabbed in Liverpool city centre early on Sunday morning.
- A man, 43, was also stabbed in Ealing following a driving dispute on Sunday. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
- A man, aged 20, was killed in Bishopscote Road in Luton after being stabbed on Sunday evening.
- On Monday, a teenager suffered serious injuries in a shooting in the Clayton area of Manchester.
- Armed police have been locked in a stand-off with a gunman after a shoot-out in Oxford city centre on Monday.
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Messinger said: “The violence used has rightly caused concern and we are doing all we can to address this.
“Over the bank holiday weekend, additional officers are on the streets across the capital, working hard to keep London safe.
“They are using highly visible local patrols supported by armed response, traffic motorcycles, dog units and air support, alongside plain clothes intelligence-led operations.
“Violence has no place on our streets.”
Messinger said officers were using search powers to seize knives and to stop weapons being carried in cars.
On Monday, it was confirmed a 13-year-old boy shot in the head was an innocent bystander who had been walking down the street with his parents.
The youngster was hit by the shotgun pellets in Harrow as a 15-year-old was attacked at around 1.15pm on Sunday in High Street, Wealdstone.
Scotland Yard said the older boy was found to have suffered head injuries, caused by a number of shotgun pellets.
Minutes later, police were alerted to the second boy injured nearby.
A 39-year-old man arrested on the evening of May 6 in connection with the incident has been released under investigation.
Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton was fatally gunned down in Southwark, less than a day before the Harrow shootings.
The 17-year-old rapper and aspiring architect had “so much potential”, his mother said as she tearfully told of her “handsome boy”.
Rhyhiem’s mother, Pretana Morgan, called for a stop to the violence.
She said: “Let my son be the last and be an example to everyone. Just let it stop. What must be, must be.”
Morgan said her son was not in a gang and he had been “trying to make a difference” by learning to work with children.
Paramedics and police were called to reports of gunshots on Cooks Road in Kennington on Saturday at just after 6pm.
Rhyhiem was found on nearby Warham Street with a gunshot injury.
Meanwhile, a 43-year-old was stabbed in Perivale, north-west London, on Sunday night after a dispute about driving.
Police said the man was attacked on Buckingham Avenue at around 9pm after a number of residents questioned a man in a blue car about the nature of his driving in the small residential street.
Elsewhere, two men died in stabbings in Liverpool and Luton during the bank holiday weekend.
Fatah Warsame, 20, from Cardiff, died after being stabbed in Liverpool city centre early on Sunday morning, while another victim, also aged 20, was killed in Bishopscote Road in Luton that evening.
Back in London, three people were injured in a “noxious substance” assault following an altercation between two groups in east London at around 5.20am on Sunday.