Met cranks up blitz on street gangs

9:36am Saturday 5th July 2008

A team of police officers dedicated to targeting gangs will take to the streets in a bid to tackle knife crime in a week that has seen a spate of stabbings in London.

The Met Police announced the creation of the 75-man taskforce on the same day that another teenager died - after being attacked by a masked gang.

Shakilus Townsend, 16, pleaded for his mother as he lay wounded in the street in Thornton Heath, south London.

Officers said they were hunting three black teenagers who ambushed Shakilus, stabbing him in the chest and beating him around the head. The youths had pulled up their hoods and covered their faces in bandanas for the planned attack.

They also want to trace a black girl, aged in her mid-teens and wearing a floral dress, who stood back with up to eight others and watched the sickening attack.

Police have recovered two knives, one of which was described by a witness as 18 inches long.

The death brings the toll of teenagers killed in knife attacks in the capital this year to 18.

Met Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson emphasised that tackling knife crime was now the force's "number one priority". He said the taskforce would be deployed to the worst affected of London's 32 boroughs "with immediate effect".

Teams of officers have already been deploying to trouble hotspots since the launch of Operation Blunt 2 in May.

Armed with wands and knife arches, the officers have been carrying out searches using powers under Section 60 of the Public Order Act, which allows them to operate under the presumption of reasonable suspicion.

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