A woman was struck over the head with a machete less than four hours after another woman was stabbed to death in south-east London as a violent crime wave in the capital continues.
A 55-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder after a 75-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Peckham in the borough of Southwark.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that emergency services were called to Ethnard Road, Peckham, on Friday at 4:04 pm where they found the senior citizen with multiple stab wounds.
Despite being treated at the scene by the London Ambulance Service (LAS), she was pronounced dead at 4:37 pm.
The suspect was taken to an east London hospital to be treated for a stab wound, according to Scotland Yard, before being taken to a police station where he remains.
The man and the woman were known to each other, according to the statement.
The death brings the total of homicides in the capital to 120 — outpacing last year’s total murder rate of 116.
Less than four hours later at 7:18 pm, police were called to an address in Charlton in the south-east London borough of Greenwich after a woman was hit over the head with a machete by an unknown assailant.
A heavy-built “Asian” male in his 30s snuck upon the woman, aged in her 50s, and struck her before fleeing the scene.
She had suffered a cut to her head was taken to a hospital where her injuries were deemed not life-threatening.
Police continue to investigate in search of the assailant.
Since Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been mayor of London, the capital has seen knife crime rise by almost a third from the years 2015/16 to 2016/17. Recent statistics have revealed that London hit its highest ever level of knife crime in the year to June 2018.
In November, the mayor made the astounding admission that, after the rise in stabbings during his less than three-year tenure to date, it could take a decade to bring knife crime in the capital under control.