Hundreds march against knife crime in London

The families of murder victims have led a protest through central London against the number of young people stabbed to death in the capital.

The murder of 17-year-old Alfie Stone in west London earlier this month was the 13th fatal stabbing of a teenager in London this year.

Recent weeks have also seen stabbings on the premises of two south London schools.

The Met has pledged to do all it can to reduce knife crime.

The families of Alfie Stone, 21-year-old Josh Hanson and 24-year-old Sabrina Moss were among the activists who gathered in Trafalgar Square before proceeding to New Scotland Yard via Downing Street.

Protesters chanted: "We are losing a generation", and "enough is enough".

A list of the names of young people killed was read out in Downing Street.

'Disturbing increase'

In a statement last month, the Met said: "There has been a disturbing increase in the number of murders and stabbings, often with young black men the victims."

It continued: "We will do all we can to reduce knife crime, to tackle London's gangs and take more knives and weapons off our streets."

Met operations are under more intense scrutiny than usual in the build-up to Chancellor George Osborne's spending review, with several prominent officers stressing the dangers of cuts to their budgets.

Speaking on the BBC Sunday Politics programme, Labour MP David Lammy said: "Knife crime is spiking because officers aren't there to know the young people."

But Conservative MP Victoria Borwick, a former deputy mayor of London, said it was "extremely unlikely" that policing was going to be cut, and that the key was that the Met should decide how to allocate its resources.

Knife crime has become an area of tension between the Met and the Home Office, with Scotland Yard recently suggesting Theresa May had "misunderstood" the way it used stop and search in the effort to combat use of the weapons.