Killings in London down by a quarter

The number of killings in London has dropped by a quarter in the last year, Scotland Yard said.

Over the past 12 months, there were 122 homicides recorded by the Met, with 32 fewer victims than the period before, not including nine killed in terrorist attacks in 2017.

Twenty-five people were killed in domestic incidents, 69 with a knife and 10 with a gun.

The majority of victims were male – a total of 83 compared with 37 women.

The largest number – 50 – were of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity, followed by white Europeans with 44.

There were 14 Asian deaths, seven dark European and two Arabian or Egyptian, the figures showed.

The data also showed a reduction in other types of violent crime in the capital.

Knife-related injuries among under-25s reduced by 15%, equating to 311 fewer victims.

Knife crime with injury across all ages was down by 10% and gun crime by 6.8%.

Scotland Yard said the drop from 2,079 to 1,768 youths injured in stabbings was “extremely encouraging”.

Moped-enabled crime dropped by more than half – 52.3% – to 11,390, the figures showed.

But knife crimes, including possession of a blade, saw a slight increase of just over 0.5% to 14,843.