The murder of a pregnant woman highlighted the scale of the violent crime problems faced in London after a weekend in which four people were killed, the city’s mayor said.
Paramedics delivered the baby of eight-months pregnant Kelly Mary Fauvrelle after discovering the 26-year-old fatally wounded from stab wounds inside a house in south London early on Saturday. The new-born was taken to hospital and is in a critical condition, said police.
“Violence against women has no place in our city, and horrific murders in the home like this show the scale of the problem we face,” Mr Khan wrote on Twitter. “My heart goes out to this innocent child and to the mother they have so tragically lost.”
Violence against women has no place in our city, and horrific murders in the home like this show the scale of the problem we face.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 29, 2019
My heart goes out to this innocent child, and to the mother they have so tragically lost. @MetPoliceUK are investigating - please help if you can. https://t.co/ia8vIuViET
Police said on Sunday that they had arrested a 29-year-old man. Officers earlier arrested another man, 37, who has been released pending further investigations. The motive for the killing has not been established.
In separate incidents, two men were fatally stabbed and another killed after a fight over the weekend, said police. Five people have been arrested.
Knife crime in England and Wales rose to record levels in 2017-18 with the number of fatal stabbings, 285, the highest in a year since records began in 1946.
US President Donald Trump has blamed Mr Khan for the level of crime in the UK’s capital, describing him in a tweet as a “stone cold loser” who had done a “terrible job” as mayor of London.
Ministers have blamed the rise in violence on disputes between drug gangs. Police leaders have pointed to swingeing budget cuts to the service by current prime minister Theresa May, while she was home secretary for six years from 2010.
