Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner spoke out yesterday about the escalated violence in London over the past ten days.

The statement from the Deputy Assistant Commissioner Graham McNulty follows the most recent stabbing victim, 17-year-old Jodie Chesney, murdered in Harold Hill on March 1.

Other victims native to North London include Dominic Alexander aged 25, Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck aged 19, 20-year-old Ché Morrison and Eliza Linda Stevens aged 50.

Mr Alexander, aged 25, who was stabbed last Tuesday (February 26) on Green Street in Enfield at 12.40am.

He remains critically ill after the "horrific" fight where he received stab wounds.

Mr Gabbidon-Lynck was killed on Vincent Road in Wood Green on February 22.

Mr Morrison was killed outside Ilford railway station on Tuesday (February 26).

Florent Okende, 20, was arrested on Sunday (March 3) on suspicion of the murder.

Ms Stevens was found dead at an address in Great North Way in Hendon, Barnet on Saturday (March 2).

Ian Levy, 54 of 5 Lime Court in Great North Way, was charged on Sunday (March 3) with her murder.

Although Prime Minister Theresa May has denied claims that police cuts are linked to the latest wave of fatal stabbings, Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner made a statement yesterday making a thinly-veiled plea for more officers.

Speaking outside Scotland Yard yesterday McNulty said: "We have had a tragic ten days in London where we have seen a number of high profile, violent incidents and our thoughts are very much with the families and friends and indeed the wider communities affected by these tragic events. One incident, one injury, one death is one too many.

"Tackling violent crime remains the Met's top priority and we have been working day and night to make progress. In advance of the weekend just passed, we had arranged for more officers from our Violent Crime Taskforce to be on duty and we have extended their shifts to raise our visibility across London. These officers are operating across London in both uniform and plain clothes. Officers from the homicide teams are working around the clock to bring justice to families and protect communities.

"This increased police presence has made a difference with officers conducting more than 2,500 stop and searches in the last three days alone. To give some idea of the scale of our activity around tackling knife crime, in the last 12 months we have seized thousands of weapons by utilising stop and search.

"However, we are not complacent and I would appeal to the public to contact police if they are aware of anyone carrying a knife.

"If you are not comfortable about speaking directly to police, please do contact Crimestoppers where you can provide information anonymously. By doing this, you could save a life.

"Whilst enforcement of the law is an important part of our activity in London, we are undertaking an enormous amount of work within schools and across the communities to try and prevent young people from getting involved in violence.

"We continue to work with partners in the Home Office, the Mayor's Office and other organisations such as The Prince's Trust to ensure we are taking a wide-ranging approach to tackling knife crime.

"We know that there is still a significant amount of work to do in order to rid the Capital of violence and we absolutely cannot solve this problem alone. The police, our partners and the public must continue to work together to prevent young lives being lost."