Hillingdon stabbing: Two fatal knife attacks in London in space of two hours

'This level of violence is not usual on the rail network’, British Transport Police said

Police outside Hillingdon underground station in London, where a murder investigation has been launched after a man was stabbed to death. (PA Wire/PA Images)

Two men were stabbed to death in the space of two hours on Tuesday in separate incidents of knife crime in west London – including one who was struck down in broad daylight on a tube platform.

The Metropolitan Police were forced to implement Section 60 stop-and-search powers overnight across an area that spanned both alleged attacks in a bid to stem the tide of violence.

Knife crime has claimed the lives of more than 100 people in the capital over the past nine months.

The first incident saw British Transport Police race to Hillingdon underground station just before 4pm to find a man had been stabbed on the platform.

Despite the best efforts of officers, who called for an air ambulance to rush him to hospital, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A murder investigation has since been launched, but no arrests have yet been made in relation to the alleged attack.

Detective Superintendent Gary Richardson said: “While we are at the early stages of our investigation, we believe a group of young men were involved in an altercation on the platform before one of the men received a fatal stab wound.”

He added: “This level of violence is not usual on the rail network, and we will be increasing our uniformed patrols in the Hillingdon area in the coming days to help reassure the travelling public."

Two hours later, a second man was stabbed to death in Ealing, just over 12 km away.

The victim, who was in his early twenties, suffered multiple stab injuries after being attacked to the west of Ealing Common. He died at the scene just under an hour after Metropolitan Police were alerted.

One person has since been arrested on suspicion of affray in connection to the Ealing incident, and remains in custody.

Enquiries are ongoing, and homicide detectives have been notified of the case.

Knife crime has steadily increased in recent years, with knife-related homicides across England and Wales rising from 216 in 2016-17 to 268 a year later.

The number of stop and search cases have also risen, with 26,630 instances taking place in the capital last month compared to 15,527 in August 2018 according to police figures.

The majority of searches in the last year have been carried out on young black men, with the power being used on 75 black people per thousand in the capital from September 2018 to August 2019, compared to 17 out of every thousand white people.

Despite this, officers found relevant materials on more white people than black people overall, with 26% of searches of the former yielding results compared to 23% of the latter.