Panic on the streets of London - a city with a growing reputation as a hotbed of crime

The stabbing of an 11-year-old Australian tourist at one of the British capital's most recognisable landmarks is the latest blow to its international standing

City of London Police patrol Bishopsgate near their headquarters. Getty Images

Francesca Bott and Elaine Chew are always careful to keep their mobile phones hidden in their bags when they are out in London.

Although they are both now living abroad, they know the city and have been warned by family and friends about the need to take precautions.

“I think you have to use common sense, stay safe and just be guarded,” Ms Chew told The National.

“I wouldn’t wear my engagement ring and I have had different people, like family members, saying don’t wear that when you are walking around London, even Knightsbridge,” said her friend, Ms Bott.

Francesca Bott and Elaine Chew. Victoria Pertusa / The National

“People say be careful,” she added. “Don’t go out wearing any jewellery. Be careful how you dress, where you go and what time of day you go out, especially if you are alone. There is a lot more of a feeling of having your wits about you.”

The friends were standing on Hans Crescent, opposite Harrods in Kensington, close to the spot where a man died about a year ago after being attacked for his Rolex watch by a group of men wielding machetes.

The fear of being a victim of violent crime was summed up this week by British billionaire, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who said: “I can’t wear a watch in London, and I just need to be a bit wary, a bit careful.”

His company, Ineos Chemicals, is on the same street as the fatal robbery with his security recording the attack on its CCTV camera.

“He died in a pool of blood because somebody tried to take his Rolex and he resisted,” said Mr Ratcliffe.

Not far away in Chelsea, a gang of youths was recently pictured carrying openly carrying knives in broad daylight on Bray Place, close to King's Road, a shopper's hotspot lined with high-end boutiques and the Saatchi Gallery.

An image of the incident was shared on a local community group, seen by The National.

“It’s happening all over London,” said John Smith, a jovial Londoner working on the next street, cleaning windows at the H&M store on Blacklands Terrace.

He works across London, not just in Chelsea and was not surprised to hear of the gang carrying knives in the posh neighbourhood.

“I have worked around here for many years. All you see around here now is drug addicts and people’s phones getting stolen out of their hands, knife crime,” he told The National.

“But you don’t see the police about any more. You won’t see them walking up and down the street. I saw a woman the other week have a phone stolen out of her hand by someone riding a Lime bike. The police were there 10 or 15 minutes afterwards and they just took her details and off they went.”

This week, a report found that policing in London by the Metropolitan Police force was failing in all but one out of eight areas. Five areas required improvement and two areas were inadequate.

According to one of the findings of the Peel 2023 to 2025 report, the management of offenders and suspects was labelled a “serious concern”, with inconsistencies and delays.

A suspect is detained and searched by police officers after being arrested for alleged possession of a dangerous weapon near Elephant and Castle Station during Operation Sceptre. Getty Images

A decade ago, violent crime in London was fairly predictable, with the vast majority taking place in a handful of council estates, James Alexander, a criminologist from London Metropolitan University, told The National.

“Research came out in 2019 that showed that all the homicides in London over a 10-year period happened in 1.5 per cent of the estate neighbourhoods. So if you were not from those areas, you're quite safe,” he said.

Crime in central London's tourist spots, by contrast, tended to be confined to petty thefts.

That pattern has now changed, with continuing opportunistic robberies, as well as violent crime in areas you would not expect.

“Violent crime has become a lot more random,” said Mr Alexander.

Leicester Square

On Monday, an 11-year-old tourist from Australia was stabbed multiple times in Leicester Square, one of London’s most popular visitor areas, in what appeared to be a random attack.

A 32-year-old man was charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon in a public place. The girl, who required plastic surgery, has since been released from hospital.

“Up until last week, you could probably say the worst thing that's going to happen to you in London is you're going to get robbed of your phone or something which can be replaced because, in the tourist areas, that's all that happens,” said Mr Alexander.

“But now we're not sure, so it could [the attack on the girl] impact its reputation? Yes.”

A day after the stabbing, the area was buzzing again with the usual throng of visitors.

Hundreds of people wove around, taking in the sights, as small groups rested in the shade in an area that had been roped off with police tape.

The only sign anything was ever amiss was the almost continuous police presence, with pairs of officers taking turns to patrol the square.

Mounted police on patrol at Leicester Square. Reuters

Many of the tourists were not even aware of the horror that had unfolded there.

Azhar Magazova, who just moved to London from Kazakhstan, Almaty, with her husband and three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, had not heard of the stabbing in Leicester Square, which she found alarming, particularly since it happened in the daylight.

But she was very familiar with London’s reputation for mobile phone theft.

“I have heard a lot about phone theft. I’m trying to be cautious of that. I’m keeping my phone hidden,” she told The National.

The City of London

Another tourist hotspot, the square-mile City has also become a popular area for criminals looking to steal mobile phones.

City of London Police recently released a video showing the pursuit and arrest of Sonny Stringer in the City. Stringer was sentenced to two years in prison last week after stealing 24 mobile phones in one morning.

A bank of television monitors displays images captured by a fraction of London's CCTV camera network within the Met's Special Operations Room. Getty Images

Officers can be seen intercepting Stringer, 28, as he and an unknown accomplice rode into London on electric motorbikes on March 26. Stringer can be seen overtaking a stationary bus and crossing the white line in the middle of the road, before turning sharply left in front of the bus to mount the pavement.

A police car crashed into Stringer’s Surron electric bike to stop him from mounting the pavement in the direction of a family pushing a pram.

Tourists at the scene of Stringer’s arrest this week were aware of the risk of phone theft in London, but it did not put them off visiting.

“I always hold my purse tight and close,” Lies Kwanten from Belgium, told The National.

Lies Kwanten and Bjorn Geens from Belgium with their children. Victoria Pertusa / The National

“But London feels very safe,” added Ms Kwanten, who was visiting the city with her husband and two children.

“I keep my hands in my pockets, where my wallet and my phone is and we close the zippers completely,” said her husband, Bjorn Geens.

“We always tell the children they should be careful and keep everything in their backpack.”

Raffaella Zavaddaro, from the north of Italy, close to Torrino, was on holiday with her husband and two children. She knows London well and visits it regularly.

“I have been coming for the past two years,” she told The National. “People say it has worsened after Brexit but I have nothing to compare it to.

“People told me to not walk about with my phone in my hand. I always do it though, because I need the map.”

Chelsea

The city is also battling a surge in luxury watch thefts which has been called the Rolex ripper crime wave.

Watch theft happens all over London, but is particularly prevalent in upscale areas like Mayfair and Chelsea.

The number of watches stolen in England and Wales almost doubled to 11,035 a year between 2015 and 2022, according to figures from Watchfinder UK.

London is the centre, with a 56 per cent rise in thefts and 6,000 watches stolen in the capital last year alone.

Frank McGucken, a Big Issue seller. Gillian Duncan / The National

Frank McGucken, a magazine seller in Sloane Square, said he sees a watch or phone theft every month in the area.

He told The National: “I would say crime is a lot worse now. There is more violence being used. There are robbers challenging members of the public for their watches.

“It’s gone down a good bit, but if there was more community policing. If they were seen more, it would probably be a good deterrent.”

The Met has dedicated extra resources to fighting the crime wave and this year revealed details of an operation in which undercover officers wearing luxury watches late at night in central London were used as bait to lure robbers before their colleagues moved in to make arrests.

Undercover police catching watch thieves in Soho, London. Photo: Metropolitan Police

This, ironically, has the opposite effect, underscoring the city’s reputation as a hotbed for petty crime, said Mr Alexander.

“I work with young people and conducted an evaluation week about youth safety in North London.

“Every single person that I spoke to said I'm scared to go out of the house,” he said.

“It isn't and social media and everything kind of fuels this a lot.

“Unfortunately, the police fuel this a lot because they put out on their social media about and they kind of pipe it up so to show what a great job they're doing.”