On Thursday morning, London’s knife crime epidemic came to my neighbourhood.
News broke that a man had been stabbed at the railway station at Barnes, a leafy, affluent area of South West London—the last place you’d expect something like this to happen.
British Transport Police (BTP) said that, at around 7:10 a.m., they received reports of a “serious assault”:
Paramedics also attended, and a person was taken to hospital with injuries that are consistent with stabbing and are considered to be life threatening.
I went to the station to investigate. By the time I got there, all the passengers were long gone, as was the victim, but a heavy police presence remained. A Network Rail official guarding the cordoned-off area said she did not know when it would re-open—although by lunchtime, trains were calling there again.
At the time of writing, police have released no information on the attacker, or attackers. The statement from BTP simply said, “Enquiries into this incident are ongoing,” and encouraged witnesses to come forward. To date, there has been no description of a suspect, or suspects. Nor has there been news of an arrest.
Given how busy the station would have been, and the likely number of witnesses, this is surprising.
Events like this are depressingly familiar in the UK capital. The Metropolitan Police recorded some 14,577 knife-related offences in 2023, up from 12,119 the previous year. That’s 165 incidents per 100,000 people. In addition, 72 of the 112 homicides in London last year involved a knife.
Yet an incident like this in Barnes is still surprising. This is a well-to-do area with plenty of green spaces and large houses, favoured by celebrities and high-ranking professionals.
Detective Superintendent Sam Blackburn said in a statement
The public will see increased high-visibility patrols in the area and across the network to provide reassurance.
A temporary reassurance, perhaps. Because the people of Barnes, and the rest of the capital, now know that nowhere in London is safe.
