Five held over Shakilus stabbing
Updated on 06 July 2008
Five people are being held over the murder of Shakilus Townsend after a weekend that saw 13 stabbings.
Two men aged 22 and 18, two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, and a 16-year-old girl are being questioned at south London police stations in connection with the teenager's death.
Shakilus, 16, was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed in an attack in Thornton Heath, south London, on Thursday. He died the next day.
A vigil for another of the capital's teenage knife victims, Ben Kinsella, was held on Sunday one week after his death.
Hundreds of friends gathered in North Road, Islington, laying candles and lanterns around a floral tribute left at the scene.
Relatives and friends of Shakilus, including his parents Nicola and Derek, visited the spot where he died on Saturday.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is reportedly considering forcing doctors to notify the authorities about knife attacks to give police more information on stabbings.
Policing Minister Tony McNulty warned that carrying knives is getting into teenagers' "collective DNA".
Non-fatal knife stabbings this weekend include attacks on two security guards in Oxford Street, central London, on Saturday, and on a man in his twenties in Putney Heath, south London.
A 25-year-old man was stabbed in the mouth in an unprovoked attack in Southend, Essex, on Saturday, a 19-year-old man is in hospital after an "potential stabbing" in Sheffield and three men and a teenager were attacked with knives in Salford.
Graham Mitchell, 39, of Walker, Newcastle, will appear before magistrates tomorrow charged with the attempted murder of a 25-year-old woman and 26-year-old man who were stabbed in Newcastle on Saturday.
In a separate incident that night another man was stabbed at a working men's club in Sunderland.
A 19-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach in Merseyside on Friday night.
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