Police still 'in control' of London's streets, says Met commissioner after week of bloodshed

Cressida Dick says the recent spate of killings 'ghastly' but 'not unprecedented'

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, centre, walks with officers through Stoke Newington in north London (PA)

The head of the Metropolitan Police has denied her force has lost control of London's streets but admitted the wave of violent crime sweeping through the capital was “very worrying”.

Commissioner Cressida Dick said the recent spate of killings and stabbings was “ghastly” but “not unprecedented” .

She added she expected further arrests and charges in the five murder investigations launched in London in the last few days.

Her comments came after a 30-year-old man was detained in Hackney over the murder of 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, who was gunned down in Tottenham on Monday.

The teenager was shot in a drive-by attack as she sat chatting with friends in a killing that has shocked the capital.

Her death is one of 55 suspected murders in London this year.

Ms Dick’s comments also followed a night in which six teenagers were stabbed within just 90 minutes on London’s streets. Four of the victims, including a 13-year-old boy, were seriously injured but none lost their lives.

The crime wave led the Met’s former head of diversity and policing in Tottenham to suggest the police appeared to "have lost control of public spaces and the streets”.

“The silence from senior officers in the Met is deafening,” Victor Olisa added in an interview with The Guardian.

But Ms Dick insisted her officers had “not lost control”.

Speaking after a walk through Stoke Newington in north London, she told the BBC: “Over the last three months and in particular in the last several days we have had a unusual spike in horrible homicides, ghastly events, that have taken people’s lives and devastated other people’s lives.

“This is not an unprecedented time, but it is a very worrying time.”

She defended the Met’s record of bringing criminals to justice and said she believed the perpetrators of the recent killings would face the courts.

“It is important that we investigate those to the best of our ability and that we bring people to justice,” Ms Dick said. “I anticipate that we will. We are very good at that.

“In the five cases in the last week that will be on your mind, we have arrested in all but one. I anticipate that we will have further arrests, and indeed charges.”

Police have appealed for witnesses over the murder of a 16-year-old Amaan Shakoor, who was shot in Walthamstow just 30 minutes after Tanesha was killed. He died in hospital the next day.

Officers said they were keeping an open mind about the later attack, and at this stage there has been no suggestion that the two killings are linked.

Detective Inspector Beverley Kofi, of the force’s murder squad, appealed for information.

He said: “We are appealing to anybody who witnessed the incident and has not yet come forward, or who in the hours since this shocking murder are privy to information that could help us find those responsible.

“You may be fearful of repercussions of speaking to police, or have loyalties that you believe can’t be compromised.

“We are dealing with the fatal shooting of a teenage girl, and would implore you to do the right thing and come forward.”

On Friday afternoon a section 60 order, granting police stop and search powers across the borough of Newham, was announced in response to stabbing of the 13-year-old boy on Thursday.

The order will remain in place until 6am on Saturday.