Tag Archives: stabbings

Two more teenagers killed at weekend as knife murders in Britain soar

FILE PHOTO: People visit a site near to where 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was killed, at the Saint Neots Play Park in Harold Hill, east London, Britain March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

By Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) – Two teenagers were killed in knife attacks in Britain over the weekend, bringing the total number of people killed in stabbings this year to at least 24 and pushing the bloodshed to the forefront of national concern.

British Interior Minister Sajid Javid said he would be meeting police chiefs this week to find ways to tackle the problem as he called for an end to the “senseless violence”.

“Young people are being murdered across the county, it can’t go on,” Javid said.

Police say the surge in knife crime in a country where guns are hard to obtain has been driven by several factors, including rivalries between drug gangs, cuts to youth services, and provocations on social media. Many have occurred in poor areas of the capital, London.

The issue has shot to the top of the political agenda after figures show the number of deaths from stabbings reached a record last year. The number of children in England aged 16 and under being stabbed rose by 93 percent between 2016 and 2018.

At the same time, police have suffered big cuts in staffing and funding under austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, particularly during her tenure as interior minister in the years before she took the top job.

In the latest deaths, 17-year-old schoolboy Yousef Ghaleb Makki, was stabbed in a village near Manchester while he was visiting a friend. Two boys, also aged 17, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Jodie Chesney, a 17-year-old Girl Scout, was killed in a knife attack in a park in east London. Her family have called her murder a “totally random and unprovoked attack”.

“A Knife to the Heart of Britain”, the Dail Mail splashed across its front page on Monday along with a photograph of Chesney.

British media also made much of the fact that Makki lived in an affluent area and went to a private school. Most attacks take place in more deprived areas with higher general crime rates.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY

Two weeks ago, three teenagers were stabbed in Birmingham, central England, prompting a senior regional police official to say Britain was facing a national emergency.

A total of 285 knife and sharp instrument homicides recorded in the year ending March 2018, the highest number since Home Office records began in 1946. The previous high was in the year ending March 2008, with 268 homicides by stabbing.

Nineteen murders have taken place in London this year, according to London Metropolitan Police.

The force had arranged more officers to be on duty in response to the violent crime wave, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Graham McNulty said.

Prime Minister May rejected claims that falling police numbers following funding cuts was fuelling the rise in knife crime.

“If you look at the figures what you see is there is no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers,” she said.

The government said it had set out a range of actions to tackle violent crime, including a 200 million pound ($265 million) youth fund and an independent review of drug misuse.

It has also proposed an extra 970 million pounds in police funding for 2019-20.

“We’re taking action on many fronts & I’ll be meeting police chiefs this week to hear what more can be done. Vital we unite to stop this senseless violence,” Javid said.

(Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Gas-laden truck set afire, three stabbed, one dead in Australia terror attack

A burnt out vehicle is surrounded by police tape on Bourke Street in central Melbourne, Australia, November 9, 2018. AAP/James Ross/via REUTERS

By Tom Westbrook and Sonali Paul

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A Somali-born man set fire to a pickup truck laden with gas cylinders in the center of the Australian city of Melbourne on Friday and stabbed three people, killing one, before he was shot by police in a rampage they called an act of terrorism.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing any evidence.

The utility truck carrying barbecue gas cylinders burned on busy Bourke Street just before the evening rush hour as the driver stabbed bystanders and attacked police.

The cylinders did not explode and the fire was put out in 10 minutes, by which point the attack was over.

“We are still trying to piece together whether the vehicle was lit then he got out the car or whether he got out the car and then the vehicle took flame,” Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton told reporters.

Video posted to Twitter and broadcast on television showed the man swinging a knife at two police officers, while his truck burned in the background.

One of the officers shot the man and he collapsed to the ground clutching his chest, the video showed. Other footage showed two stab victims lying on the ground nearby.

The attacker, who police said was 31, died in hospital, as did one of the victims, Ashton said. “From what we know of that individual, we are treating this as a terrorism incident,” he said of the attacker.

Asked about what the attacker had been planning, Ashton referred to the gas cylinders in the car and said: “You could make certain assumptions from that.”

Victoria police declined to comment when contacted about Islamic State’s claim. The militant group also claimed responsibility for a deadly siege in the city in 2017 when a Somali man was killed by police after taking a woman hostage.

Ashton said there was no longer a threat to the public, but that security would be boosted at horse races and Remembrance Day memorials over the weekend.

Policemen stop members of the public from walking towards the Bourke Street mall in central Melbourne, Australia, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Sonali Paul

Policemen stop members of the public from walking towards the Bourke Street mall in central Melbourne, Australia, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Sonali Paul

NO WARNING

Police did not identify the attacker but Ashton said the man was known to them and intelligence authorities because of family associations.

All of the victims were men, Ashton said. He declined to release their names because police were still in the process of contacting families.

Police later said the two wounded men were aged 26 and 58.

Asked if the attacker had recently traveled to Syria he said: “That is something we might be able to talk more about tomorrow.”

A staunch U.S. ally, Australia has been on alert for such violence after a Sydney cafe siege in 2014, and its intelligence agencies have stepped up scrutiny, though there was no warning of the latest attack.

Authorities say Australia’s vigilance has helped to foil at least a dozen plots, including a plan to attack downtown Melbourne at Christmas in 2016.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement released on Twitter: “Australia will never be intimidated by these appalling attacks.”

TEN MINUTES OF CHAOS

Video posted to social media showed chaotic scenes as bystanders scattered while the attacker fought with police and his victims lay bleeding on the footpath.

One man charged at the tall attacker, who was wearing a long black shirt, with a shopping trolley just before police drew their weapons.

A witness, Markel Villasin, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio: “Bystanders were yelling out ‘just shoot him, just shoot him’.” They did.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the attack was “an evil, terrifying thing that’s happened in our city”.

Warning text messages were sent after the attack and police sealed off the downtown area, usually busy with shoppers and diners on a Friday evening. Some cordons were lifted later, though the immediate crime scene would be sealed until Saturday, police said.

Memories remain fresh of a fatal but not terror-related attack on the same street last year, in which a man drove his car at pedestrians at high speed, killing six people and wounding about 30. That prompted the city to install hundreds of security bollards. The driver is on trial.

In December 2014, two hostages were killed during a 17-hour siege by a “lone wolf” gunman, inspired by Islamic State militants, in a cafe in Sydney.

(Writing by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)

Gang dispute sparks deadliest U.S. prison riot in 25 years: official

A guard leaves the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina, U.S., April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Randall Hill

(Reuters) – A gang-related dispute sparked an overnight riot in a South Carolina prison that killed seven inmates, the deadliest U.S. prison riot since 1993, state officials and prison safety experts said on Monday.

Another 17 people were wounded in an eight-hour long series of fights that spread through three dorms at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina, said Bryan Stirling, director of the state Department of Corrections.

“This was all about territory. This was about contraband, this was about cellphones,” Stirling told a news conference. “These folks are fighting over real money and real territory while they are incarcerated.”

It was the deadliest U.S. prison riot since 1993, when nine inmates and one corrections officer died at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, said Steve Martin, a prisons expert and now the federal monitor for the consent decree involving New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex.

All seven deaths were the result of stabbing injuries, said Lee County Coroner Larry Logan.

Forty-four guards were on duty at the 1,583-inmate prison when violence erupted Sunday evening, Stirling said. Prison staff called in reinforcements and did not move into the first unit until four hours after the fighting began, a delay that he said was necessary to ensure the guards’ safety.

For months, South Carolina officials have said that prisoners used smuggled cellphones to manage crimes outside the prisons. Governor Henry McMaster on Monday said he would renew his request to federal officials to allow him to block cell signals on prison property.

The State newspaper showed video it said was taken by inmates with smuggled phones that depicted trails of blood and dead bodies in the prison. Reuters could not immediately confirm that the video was authentic and Stirling declined to do so.

The state has about 5,000 prison employees in 22 institutions, but “security staff numbers continue to lag behind the authorized strength,” the department’s fiscal 2017 Accountability Report said, without giving numbers.

Martin said staff shortages could have been a contributing factor in the riot.

A guard leaves the main entrance of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina, U.S., April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Randall Hill

A guard leaves the main entrance of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina, U.S., April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Randall Hill

“When high-security inmates start engaging each other and there aren’t enough staff, it’s hard to stop it,” Martin said in a phone interview.

State officials identified the slain inmates as Raymond Scott, 28, who was serving a 20-year sentence for crimes including assault and battery; Michael Milledge, 44, serving 25 years for drug trafficking; Damonte Rivera, 24, serving life for murder; Eddie Gaskins, 32, serving 10 years for domestic violence; Joshua Jenkins, 33, serving 15 years for manslaughter; Corey Scott, 38, serving 22 years for kidnapping; and Cornelius McClary, 33, serving 25 years for burglary.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jeffrey Benkoe, Susan Thomas, Jonathan Oatis and Steve Orlofsky)

Israel says Jerusalem mosque metal detectors to stay

Palestinians stand in front of Israeli policemen and newly installed metal detectors at an entrance to the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City July 16, 2017.

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday it would not remove metal detectors whose installation outside a major Jerusalem mosque has triggered the bloodiest clashes with the Palestinians in years, but could eventually reduce their use.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security Cabinet on Sunday evening. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would halt security ties with Israel until it scraps the walk-through gates installed at entrances to Al-Aqsa mosque plaza after two police guards were shot dead on July 14.

Netanyahu’s right-wing government is wary of being seen to yield to Palestinian pressure over the site, which Jews revere as the vestige of their two ancient temples. It was among areas of East Jerusalem that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed as its capital, in a move not recognized internationally.

“They (metal detectors) will remain. The murderers will never tell us how to search the murderers,” Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli minister for regional development, told Army Radio.

“If they (Palestinians) do not want to enter the mosque, then let them not enter the mosque.”

Incensed at what they perceive as a violation of delicate decades-old access arrangements at Islam’s third-holiest site, many Palestinians have refused to go through the metal detectors, holding street prayers and often violent protests.

Reuters witnesses reported some light clashes between Muslim worshippers and Israeli security forces after prayers at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday night. Palestinian medical sources did not report any serious injuries.

The spike in tensions, and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday, have triggered international alarm and prompted the United Nations Security Council to convene a meeting for Monday to seek ways of calming the situation.

Washington sent Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, to Israel on Sunday evening in hopes of helping to reduce tensions, a senior administration official said.

“President Trump and his administration are closely following unfolding events in the region,” the official said. “The United States utterly condemns the recent terrorist violence.”

Two Jordanians were killed and an Israeli was wounded in a shooting incident on Sunday in a building inside the Israeli embassy complex in Jordan’s capital, Amman, police and a security source said.

Details of what happened were unclear. Israel imposed a ban on reporting the incident and made no public comment.

Jordan has seen an outpouring of public anger against Israel in recent days, with Jordanian officials calling on it to remove the metal detectors at the Al-Aqsa mosque.

 

ABBAS ULTIMATUM

The spasm of violence began on Friday, when Israeli security forces shot three demonstrators dead, Palestinian medics said. Israeli police said they were investigating the charge.

On the same day, a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis in the occupied West Bank after vowing on Facebook to take up his knife and heed “Al-Aqsa’s call”.

A Palestinian was killed in the Jerusalem area on Saturday when an explosive device he was building went off prematurely, the Israeli military said. Palestinian medics said he died of shrapnel wounds to the chest and abdomen.

On Sunday, a rocket was launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, but hit an open area, causing no damage, Israel’s military said.

Abbas, referring to the metal detectors in a speech on Sunday, said: “If Israel wants security coordination to be resumed, they have to withdraw those measures.

“They should know that they will eventually lose, because we have been making it our solemn duty to keep up security on our side here and on theirs.”

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public security minister, warned of potential “large-scale volatility” – a prospect made more likely in the West Bank by the absence of Abbas’ help.

Erdan said Israel may eventually do away with metal-detector checks for Muslims entering the Al-Aqsa compounds under alternative arrangements under review. Such arrangements could include reinforcing Israeli police at the entrances and introducing CCTV cameras with facial-recognition technologies.

“There are, after all, many worshippers whom the police know, regulars, and very elderly people and so on, and it recommended that we avoid putting all of these through metal detectors,” Erdan told Army Radio, suggesting that only potential troublemakers might be subjected to extra screening.

Any such substitute arrangement was not ready, he added.

The Muslim authorities that oversee Al-Aqsa said, however, they would continue to oppose any new Israeli-imposed measures.

“We stress our absolute rejection of … all measures by the Occupation (Israel) that would change the historical and religious status in Jerusalem and its sacred sites,” the Palestinian grand mufti, acting Palestinian chief justice and Jordanian-run Waqf religious trust said in a joint statement.

Turkey also urged the removal of the metal detectors and the Arab League said Israel was “playing with fire”.

 

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Peter Cooney)