Two shot dead and eight stabbed in another weekend of violence in London

An 11-year-old girl is fighting for her life after being stabbed in a northern suburb of the UK capital

Police reported a man was firing a machinegun from a balcony. Metropolitan Police

Two men have been shot dead and eight people, including three girls, have been stabbed in five incidents during another weekend of violence in the UK capital.

Police were called to a home in Enfield, north London, on Saturday where a woman and her three children aged under 12 were found suffering from serious stab injuries.

One of the youngsters, a girl aged 11, is in a critical condition in hospital, while the woman and her other two children are stable after intensive treatment.

A 44-year-old man was arrested at the scene of the attack.

Detective Sergeant Joe Stewart, who is investigating the case, described the stabbings as “appalling”.

“Attacks like this on such young people are extremely rare. At this early stage of the investigation, we are not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident. The attacker was known to the victims. There is no further risk to the public at this time,” he said

In another incident, in Wembley, north-west London, on Friday, a man believed to be in his thirties died in hospital after being found by emergency services suffering from critical gunshot injuries.

Just two days later, a second man was fatally shot on a busy road in Leyton, east London.

The victim, believed to be in his twenties, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another man was found injured but it was unclear whether he too had been shot.

No arrests have been made in connection with the shootings in Leyton or Wembley.

There were two further stabbings in Croydon, south London, on Friday and in Hounslow, west London, on Saturday.

In both incidents, two men were stabbed, with one victim in Hounslow taken to hospital in a critical condition.

In the last weekend of June, four people were murdered, including a heavily pregnant woman. Her baby was delivered by paramedics but died in hospital on Wednesday.

The latest spate of violence will inevitably put pressure on London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has come under fire over rising crime in the capital.

Before this weekend, there were 66 homicides in London this year, 46 of which were fatal stabbings.

Official statistics show that violent crime rose by 19 per cent in England and Wales in 2018, in comparison with the year before.

Police leaders have blamed stringent cuts to policing, which began in 2010 under then home secretary Theresa May.

Mrs May has previously said there is no direct correlation between rising violent crime and cuts to police resources. But this week, a former head of London’s Metropolitan Police said the prime minister’s policies of cutting police numbers and reducing police powers to stop and search the public had played a role in the crime increase.

"It really has been a pretty poor period of time –, well, unprecedented. We all think it’s probably been the worst period of anyone who’s been a Home Secretary, ever,” Lord Stevens told London radio station LBC.

Meanwhile, on Saturday Mr Khan said on Twitter that a Violent Crime Taskforce, set up in response to the growing threat, had made more than 5,000 arrests and confiscated more than 1,800 dangerous weapons across the city.